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KUONTISPIECK 

KING DESIRE 


KING DESIRE AND HIS 
KNIGHTS 


A FAIRY-TALE FOR CHILDREN AND SOME PARENTS 


By 

EDITH F. A. U. PAINTON 


Author of 

** A Song of the Flesh and the Spirit/^ “ From the 
Prairie/’ etc., etc. 


R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 

18 East Seventeenth Street 

NEW YORK 



Copyright, 1913 

BY 

R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 


\ 

©C1.A350821 


9t 


DEDICATION^* 


To AIY OWN LITTLE DAUGHTERS; 

EILEEN, RAE, AND DORIS; 

AND MY SMALL BON, DEO, 

WITH THE HOPE THAT IT MAY HELP 
TO OPEN THEIR EYES TO THE NEW WORLD HEREIN PICTURED 

AND TO 

THE SACRED AND TENDER MEMORY OP 

MALLORY YORK PAINTON, 

WHOSE DEVELOPING LITTLE LIFE WAS 
ITS SOLE SOURCE OP INSPIRATION, 

THIS LITTLE PAIRY-TALE THAT f * COMES TRUE [* 

IS MOST TENDERLY 

Dedicated. 

San Diego, Californa; 

March 8th, 1913. E. F. A. U. P 


I 




FOREWORD 


TT was the evident lack of New Thought 
literature that would appeal to the minds 
and souls of the little folks, that first led me to 
undertake the composition of this book. The 
whole philosophy of the new lines of thinking is so 
beautiful, that it must naturally make a strong 
appeal to the lives of even the very young when 
presented in any form suitable for their compre- 
hension. And as it is from these little ones that 
the men and women of to-morrow must be evolved 
it stands to reason that it is in their fertile little 
minds that the seeds of to-day should be carefully 
planted and nursed to full-fiowered life. 

Over and over have my little girls turned the 
pages of the New Thought books and periodicals 
and tossed them aside. What is it all about, 
Mamma? I can^t get anything at all out of it!” 
would be the almost invariable complaint. And 
for them, and others of their ages who have not 
been able to glean from the great wealth of 
literature bearing so beautifully and compre- 
7 


8 


Foreword 


hensively upon this wonderful philosophy, the 
practical truths suited to their own powers of 
absorption and assimilation, I have endeavored 
to embody in this little volume all of the funda- 
mental or basic principles of the divine truth, that 
the wayfaring man, though a fool, should not 
err therein.’^ I have tried to give as complete 
an explanation of the primary New Thought laws 
always in operation in the great Kingdom of the 
Soul, as might be woven into the web of the 
youngest child^s every-day experience, and yet to 
make it all as interesting and entertaining as any 
fairy-tale that might appeal to our little ones by 
its wealth of beauty and strong foundation of 
truth. 

With this one end and aim in view, I pass the 
little book on to the parents who are looking for 
just some such way of presenting the subject to 
their children, with the hope that it may be as 
useful and helpful and instructive, and withal, as 
welcome and as indulgently received, as it has 
been carefully and prayerfully prepared by 

The AUTHOR, 

E. F. A. U. P. 


KING DESIRE AND 
HIS KNIGHTS 


CHAPTER I 
“ AUNTIE SUE/’ 

HE Evans children danced with glee, and 
made the air ring with their shouts of joy 
and satisfaction, when the letter came from 
Aunt Susie, stating in very plain words that 
she was really coming to spend her whole long 
summer vacation with them in their little village 
home. 

There was a real large family of these chil- 
dren, — Will, Hattie, Frank, Olive, Harry, Ethel, 
and Oma, and little five-year-old Pete, whom 
everybody who knew him spoke of far more often 
as “ Pifer,’^ — though this name had been given 
to him so long, long ago that not one of the family 
could remember a thing about where it came 
from, or why the name still clung so closely to 
the little fellow. 


9 


10 


Auntie Sue.” 


As though these eight children were not quite 
enough for all manner of good times and big 
undertakings, as well as all sorts of unmen- 
tionable pranks and plunders, just across the 
street from them lived their cousins, the John- 
sons, who added to the number a Henry, Alice, 
Edna, Marion, Ealph, and little Ara, to say noth- 
ing of the big Newfoundland, Bruno, who never 
failed to take part, — and a really important 
part, — in w^hatever was going on! 

Now, when I say that the whole fourteen 
youngsters were just like one large family, and 
that they were nearly always to be found all to- 
gether, either in one yard, or in the other, — and 
when I add that they were not story-book chil- 
dren at all, but real, live children, with red blood, 
instead of ink in their veins, and warm flesh, in- 
stead of paper on their bones, it will not be hard 
for you to understand that it took more than one 
pair of keen eyes to follow all their movements, 
and more than one warning voice to guide and 
direct them in the way they should go.” You 
will readily see, too, that when the letter was 
read aloud to the eager crowd, and the glad word 
was passed around from lip to lip, 

“ Auntie Sue is really coming to stay all sum- 
mer! ” 

the shout that went up toward the blue sky on 


Auntie Sue.’^ 


11 


the afternoon breeze was no faint little whisper, 
but seemed to pierce the very heavens with the 
wild^ youthful joy of it’s ‘^Auntie Sue! Auntie 
Sue!” 

A large family of young ones like ours is cer- 
tainly a jolly thing,” Mr. Evans was wont to say 
to his wife when these outbursts rent the air, 
and smote upon his ear, “ but no one can deny 
that it certainly is a very noisy thing! We seem 
to be celebrating the Fourth of July all the 
time ! ” 

“Yes,” his wife would say, with a look of 
forced patience, “ they are so unreasonably full 
of life and spirit. They take every fresh joy and 
grief so much to heart, that they don’t ever seem 
able to hold it in at all! ” 

But even Mr. and Mrs. Evans admitted that 
this event was worthy of even the enthusiastic 
demonstration its announcement received! 

Aunt Susie was the sister of both Mrs. Evans 
and Mrs. Johnson. She was also the children’s 
favorite aunt, and with the delicious frankness 
of childhood, they took no pains whatever to 
conceal this plain truth from any one. 

It was not hard to find out the reason, either. 
In the first place. Aunt Susie liked children, — 
really, truly liked them! She seemed to take 


12 


Auntie Sue/^ 


them right into her very heart, and be young 
again with them. She always understood them 
so well, even when they were right down naughty, 
that they were never afraid to tell her all that 
came into their busy little brains. They knew 
she would not laugh at them, however papas and 
mammas, who, somehow, never did seem to 
understand, might receive their little efforts at 
putting into words all that was within them, — 
of expressing the little inner selves that were 
growing so rapidly inside of their sturdy, healthy 
little bodies ! 

Aunt Susie must have lived many years, — O 
surely, very many years ! — for she seemed to 
know just everthing in all the world! — every- 
thing that was, that ever had been, or that ever 
would be! 

But, still, she seemed to have a very girlish 
heart somewhere about inside of her, or else a 
very-much-alive memory of the days when she was 
just a wondering child herself, for she could 
enter so well into all their plans and feelings 
that she seemed just like a chum to every one of 
them. And, somehow, they always said, very 
plainly and frankly, that they would rather have 
a visit from her, than from any boy or girl of 
their own ages that any of them knew, or had 
ever known, in all the big, wide world! 


Auntie Sue.” 


13 


They had plenty of other Aunts, — O yes! 

“Too many of them, altogether!” Will said, 
with a snort of disdain* 

Aunts as aunts, had never appeared very desir- 
able to this crowd of boys and girls. In the first 
place, none of them liked children. To be sure, 
they had never really been heard to say so, in so 
many words. They kissed them all around, when- 
ever they came, and again, with a sort of relief, 
when they went. They gave them sweetmeats, — 
never the kind children are apt to like, however! — 
presented them with little gifts, — always some- 
thing more useful than beautiful, or, to the child- 
mind, especially desirable! — and they always 
smiled a certain fixed, tolerant smile, whenever 
any one of them ventured to make any sort of a re- 
mark. But — well, was it ever necessary for any- 
body to tell a child how much he liked, or did not 
like him? Indeed, was it ever possible for any 
person to cover up from the keen wits of a child 
the exact state of his feelings toward him? There 
is a certain atmosphere of like or dislike that 
every person carries about with him, and the 
child senses it as soon as the person does him- 
self, — perhaps even before he is quite sure within 
himself what the real state of his feelings is! 
So bright and quick are the senses of childhood, 
before the duties and experiences of the after- 


14 


Auntie Sue.’^ 


life have been allowed to dull the edges, and blunt 
the point of their perceptions! 

So of course, they knew, only too well, just how 
little all the other aunts of their family really 
cared for them! The noise bored them — poor, 
nervous women that they were! Questions 
irritated them, — possibly because they were so 
utterly unable to answer any of them, — and who 
ever saw a real, live child who was not an 
animated question-mark? They saw all their 
little naughtiness, and were not in the least slow 
to express their dislike of it. They seemed 
built, — every single one of these aunts, — for the 
express purpose of finding fault! 

But Aunt Susie was an altogether different 
sort of a person. She was not a real aunt at all! — 
or, if she was, the others weren’t! In the fond 
hearts of the children, she made up a whole class, 
all by herself. In counting up their family rela- 
tions, they were apt to say something like this: 

‘^And then, there’s the aunts! — and there’s 
Auntie Sue!” 

And nobody who knew Aunt Susie, and had 
ever seen the other aunts, thought it was very 
strange of them, either! 

Aunt Susie was a school-teacher in a big city, 
miles and miles away! She spent her whole life 
among children. She often said she would be 


Auntie Sue/’ 


15 


utterly lost, she feared, without a throng of 
noisy, chattering boys and girls within her sight 
and hearing. 

She wasn’t just an ordinary school-teacher, 
either, — O dear, no! Aunt Susie could never be 
ordinary in anything, no matter how hard she 
tried! She didn’t just make her pupils learn 
common, every-day facts and figures out of dry, 
stuffy old books! She touched everything in the 
school-day grind with the magic wand of her own 
fancy, and made it glow with beauty and life and 
color and meaning! 

She was full of stories, too, — real stories that 
real children like, — not blood-and-thunder,” — 

blackbirds-baked-in-a-pie ” stories, that appeal 
to the cruel tastes of the savage, or the depraved 
appetites of the barbarian mind, — but sweet, 
beautiful stories of real things, — the fairy-land of 
Nature, and the wonderland of Science, — the 
glory and splendor of those uplifting, elevating 
fairy-tales that are always coming true all around 
us, in every part of the big, wide world, and that 
make us better and wiser, and happier boys and 
girls because of the lessons they teach us, and 
the wishes they waken in us to do some great and 
wonderful things, all of ourselves! She always 
took them with her into a different world than 
the prosy, duty-darkened, cloud-dimmed world 
some people always live in. 


16 


Auntie Sue/^ 


Is it any wonder, then, that caps flew in air, 
and handkerchiefs waved like flags of uncon- 
trollable joy, in a wild accompaniment to their 
enthusiastic shouts of — — 


Auntie Sue! Auntie Sue! 


CHAPTER II. 


FROM THE MOTHERS’ POINT OP VIEW. 

EAR me, Susie, you actually look younger 
and fresher than ever!’^ said Mrs. 
Evans, when the children were at last safely 
stowed away in bed, on the evening after her 
sister’s arrival, and the house had become, for the 
first time in many hours, quiet and at peace 
with the world. However do you accomplish 
it?” 

By thinking young thoughts, Louise,” said 
her sister promptly. “ By keeping the spirit fresh 
and happy, and seeing nothing but the bright 
and beautiful things of life, I suppose. I don’t 
mean ever to grow old. Why should I? Why 
should any of us?” 

“It’s plain to be seen,” sighed Mrs. Johnson, 
who had come over to welcome the expected 
guest, and who had lingered until the evening, 
loath to tear herself away from her bright, cheery 
sister’s side, when she had not seen her before for 
so long a time, — “yes, it’s plain enough to be 
17 


18 


From the Mothers’ Point of View 


seen that you haven’t got a family of trouble- 
some children on your hands to worry the life 
and heart and soul out of you!” 

^^Poor, lonely me!” sighed Susie, with so 
bright a smile that it contradicted the words as 
fast as they fell from her lips. Have you no 
pity at all for my ‘ lone, lorn ’ state, Anna, that 
you can calmly throw it in my teeth, in this cruel, 
heartless way? But,” she persisted, seriously, 
wouldn’t allow myself to get old, — not a day 
older than I look now, — ^if I had both your families 
in one! Nature never intended the human family 
to grow weary, and wrinkled, and wasted, and 
worn, I am sure she didn’t! Does she not renew 
herself, year after year, in a freshness that is 
eternal? Does she ever allow herself to look faded 
and jaded? And yet, what wonders of creation, 
and re-creation, — of production, and re-produc- 
tion, — she brings about, as if by magic, in all her 
‘visible forms!’ She does not let her energies 
go to waste, — why should we? She does not 
squander her forces, — why should we? She does 
not fret and worry herself to a shadow about 
some to-morrow that may never become to-day, 
and will not be half as bad, if it does, as she 
fancies it will be, — why should we? She takes 
care of herself in every possible way, and keeps 
eternal, youth, strength, beauty, and happiness 


From the Mothers^ Point of View 


19 


in every fibre of her being, — and so, dear sisters, 
should we! ” 

“ That’s all right in theory, Susie,” said Mrs. 
Evans, with a deprecating smile. 

“ But do I look as if I were living on a theory? ” 
objected Susie. 

“Well, of course, it works with you, who have 
no cares or worries in the world, but, as I was 
going to say, for wives and mothers, it is simply 
impossible!” continued Mrs. Evans. 

“ Yes, indeed,” said Mrs. Johnson. 

“ But why? ” urged Susie. 

“ You don’t know our children,” was the weary 
mother’s reply. 

“ Pardon me, Anna, but I do know your chil- 
dren, — every blessed one of the fourteen. I some- 
times think that I know them much better than 
you can possibly know them yourself.” 

The sisters who were mothers exchanged 
glances of superior understanding. How could 
this aunt, who had never even been married, and 
who only saw these little nephews and nieces 
once in a year, and sometimes two years, possibly 
know their own boys and girls better than they 
did, who lived right with them, day in and day 
out? That was absurd, — preposterous! 

“ I see you don’t believe that,” she said, with 
a smile, correctly reading the expression of their 


20 


From the Mothers’ Point of View 


faces, and I know how ridiculous it must sound 
to you. Tell me, then, if you will, please, what 
there is about the children, that I have not yet 
found out for myself. I want to truly know 
them, you know, — just as they really are!” 

“ Why, Susie, they’re just common every-day 
children, you know, just full of faults and — and — 
deviltry!” said Mrs. Johnson. 

And there are so many of them, you see,” 
said Mrs. Evans, that we haven’t time to get 
right down to the very bottom of all their naughty 
little traits, and root them out, as we should. 
It is scold, scold, scold, the whole live-long time, — 
and yet all the talking we can do doesn’t seem 
to have any effect at all! ” 

Nor the whip, either,” added Mrs. John- 
son. ^^The more you punish, the worse they 
get! 

“I see,” said Susie, with unusual gravity. “I 
did not know, after all. I did not realize what 
very naughty boys and girls they were. They 
must be very bad children, indeed, Anna, if such 
violent measures are required.” 

“0 1 don’t think they really mean to be so 
bad,” put in Mrs. Evans hastily, who did not 
exactly relish this view of the matter. “They 
just don’t think, and so ” 

“Yes, Louise,” assented Susie, “that is the 


From the Mothers’ Point of View 


21 


main fault of all of us human beings, I am sure. 
We just don’t think! ” 

“ I know,” continued Mrs. Evans, thoughtfully, 
that they often try to be good children, and try 
to overcome their faults. I think they want to do 
what we tell them is right, if they only knew 
how. But they forget so soon!” 

“ Yes,” said Susie, still very serious and 
thoughtful. “I see!” After a pause, she added. 
Suppose you tell me of all these terrible, 
unconquerable faults, girls, — so that I may know 
better than you seem to think I do now, just 
what kind of children they are. Then we will see 
if I can’t find some good, reasonable way out of 
what certainly seems a very serious and grievous 
situation! You know I’ve had a great many years’ 
experience in handling the little sons and daugh- 
ters of ^ all sorts and conditions of men.’ ” 

The sisters thought a moment. They naturally 
shrank from discussing the shortcomings of their 
own children with any other person, even so 
devoted a child-lover as the adored Auntie Sue. 
However, the condition of things now existing 
was certainly not a desirable one, — things could 
certainly not be much worse, — and Susie had 
always been very wise and successful in her deal- 
ings with children, — they knew that. If she 
could, by any manner of means, be any help to 


22 


From the Mothers’ Point of View 


them, and improve, ever so little, the very naughty 
natures of their little ones, — well, thej^’d give 
her the symptoms, anyway, and let her diagnose 
the case from the standpoint of the physician. 

Their eyes met, and they nodded a mutual 
assent. Susie intercepted the look, and smiled. 

Well, Sue,” began Mrs. Evans, “ it isn’t best 
to be always complaining, — I know you don’t be- 
lieve in it at all, — but here is the way that 
matters stand in my case. I love my children, 
every one of the eight, better than anything else 
in the world. But it keeps me so busy attending 
to their food, and drink, and what they shall 
-wear ” 

“ Yes, the ^ wherewithal shall they be clothed,’ 
— I know!” put in Susie, with a smile. You 
seem to forget the ^ Seek ye first the kingdom of 
Good, and its right-use-ness, when all these things 
shall be added unto you.’ ” 

“ Yes, I’m afraid I do,” admitted Mrs. Evans, 
with a sigh, though I do honestly and earnestly 
want the best for my family, — the best in every 
way. But I do truly despair of ever making out 
of them the boys and girls I want them to be, — 
the men and women God surely must have meant 
them to be ! ” 

Quite likely that very feeling of despair defeats 
your purpose at the outset, Louise!” 


From the Mothers^ Point of View 


23 


Maybe! ” sighed Mrs. Evans. 

^^But, to be more definite, Louise 

^^Yes, — yes, I am coming to that! To begin 
with the oldest. Will, is so inclined to be really 
cruel, domineering, — ^ bossy,’ the children call it, 
that he gives me no end of trouble. Hattie is 
lazy. I tell her so, over and over, every day of 
her life, but she never gets very far along in the 
overcoming of it. I often tell her that I don’t 
really believe that she ever seriously tries. Frank 
would do very well, if he had not such a quick, 
nasty temper, and didn’t fly into a million pieces 
at the least thing that goes wrong. Olive is 
selfish, and though I continually point it out to 
her, and reprove, and rebuke, and scold, and even 
whip, I can’t see that she tries very hard to get 
rid of it. Harry is slovenly, — they are none of 
them any too particular about keeping neat and 
tidy, you know, — but Harry is a constant thorn 
in my flesh. Ethel is a peevish, whining cry- 
baby — you know what I mean, — she can’t bear 
either pain of body or disappointment of mind, 
and won’t even try! She is the biggest coward 
alive, — I get all out of patience with her. Oma, — 
well, it would make you laugh in spite of yourself 
to see how vain she is. She is the prettiest child 
in the family, and she knows it only too well. 
We simply can’t shame her out of it. O dear! O 


24 


From the Mothers’ Point of View 


dear! Susie, you just can’t possibly imagine what 
a cross it is for a mother to carry to see all these 
hideous faults cropping up every day, and to have 
all of your coaxings, scoldings, threats, and pun- 
ishments, altogether thrown away, in trying to 
make a single one of them any different!” 

Susie was silent a moment. 

^^How about Pete?” she asked, at last, a pe- 
culiar tone in her voice that neither of the sisters 
understood. Has my little Pifer no sins of 
omission or commission to account for at the 
Day of Judgment? ” 

You will be surprised, Susie, to learn that he, 
young as he is, has a besetting sin of his own, — 
one that is very hard to cope with. Indeed, I am 
not sure that it does not worry me more than all 
the rest. The child has absolutely no regard 
whatever for the truth. He will tell the most ex- 
travagant lies you ever heard a child make up, 
and look as innocent and angelic all the time, as 
though he actually believed every word he was 
saying.” 

That is strange, Louise.” 

^‘Yes, almost unaccountable, don’t you think? 
I suppose it must necessarily be due to some he- 
reditary or pre-natal influence, but I have never 
yet been able to, pjace the past blame where it 
belongs.” 


From the Mothers^ Point of View 


25 


And now for the Johnson branch/^ said Susie, 
after a pause. What can you tell me about your 
children, Anna, that you are sure I don’t already 
know? ” 

^^0 1 don’t care to dwell on it,” said Mrs. John- 
son, with a shrug of the shoulders. ^^It’s bad 
enough to live in the element all the time, with- 
out putting in the visiting minutes talking it all 
over. It’s a sort of relief to get entirely away 
from it sometimes. And I gave up all hope of 
trying to do anything with the reformation of 
my unruly brood long ago. I have scolded till 
I was hoarse, I have whipped till my arms ached 
for hours after; I have cried till my eyes were 
sore; yes, I have even prayed till my very faith 
was dead. Now I just let them go at their own 
sweet will, till my nerve and patience is utterly 
worn to shreds — then I get Ben to step in and 
give them a good, sound threshing all around, 
and after the noise of their yelling and wailing 
has died away, I have a sort of peace for another 
week or two ! But,” she ended with a long-drawn 
sigh, “ I’ll certainly be one thankful woman when 
they’re all grown up, and entirely off my hands 
and heart.” 

But you haven’t told me ” 

No, but I will! — in just as few words as I can, 
and have it over with. Henry’s stubborn, deter- 


26 


From the Mothers’ Point of View. 


mined upon having his own way, no matter what 
it is, nor how it displeases us all. He usually 
gets it, too, because he wears us all out. Alice 
is disobedient. She simply does not pretend to 
mind a word that is said to her, and nothing will 
make her! Edna wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t 
so conceited, but she thinks that nobody in all 
the world knows anything, or can do anything, 
except herself! Marion is a quitter, — he begins 
anything bravely and boldly enough, but at the 
least thing that goes wrong, he’s off the track 
entirely, and has given up the whole race. Ralph 
is so badly inclined to put off everything he 
has to do until the very last minute that I get 
thoroughly provoked at him every day of my life; 
and Ira, — of course, he’s too little for any very 
pronounced failings, — but he is very impolite and 
rude to everybody — ^ sassy,’ as the children say, — 
and we don’t seem able to teach him the first 
steps in good manners ! ” 

^‘You can see for yourself now, Susie,” said 
Mrs. Evans, that the situation you have found 
here is a very serious one.” 

Yes, indeed,” assented Susie, slowly, it is, — 
it surely is! It is even more serious than I at 
first thought it could be.” 

A silence fell over the little group, as they sat 
for some time looking into the glowing embers 
of the fire, each busy with her own thoughts. 


CHAPTER III 


THE AUNT’S POINT OF VIEW 

^THHE clock struck nine. The sisters started 
^ from their reverie, and looked at one an- 
other with a sudden smile. And then Susie spoke. 

^^Will you let me speak plainly, girls?” she 
asked. 

Certainly,” responded Mrs. Johnson, promptly. 

Always, — to us! ” added Mrs. Evans. 

And to every one,” said Susie, quietly, “ if at 
all. When I cannot be perfectly frank, and speak 
my real true mind, I keep perfectly still, and let 
other people say what they choose.” 

Say whatever you like,’’ said Mrs. Johnson, 
with a smile. We will take whatever it may be, 
just as we did at home, when we were all girls 
together. If it hurts, we’ll just grin and bear it.” 

“ We’ll be sure it is just what we need, if you 
think it is good for us,” said Mrs. Evans fondly. 

Scold away!” 

“ I do not want to scold,” said Susie. Far 
from it! I do not believe in scolding in the 
least, — not under any circumstances that can 
27 


28 


The Aunt^s Point of View 


come up. Pm sure it always does more harm than 
good! But I do want to point out very clearly 
just where I think you have made a mistake in 
dealing with these dear children of ours, and I 
want to be sure that you will see just the point 
I am trying to make, and that you will under- 
stand it, just exactly as I mean it!” 

We will try,” said Mrs. Evans. 

“ We will do our best. Sue,” said Mrs. Johnson. 

“ An angel could do no more than that,” 
smiled Susie. Now, in the first place, you have 
made a mistake in thinking your children are bad. 
No human being is bad, — certainly, no sweet, 
innocent child! If you think they are bad, you 
make them think the same of themselves, and I 
tell you, girls, you must be careful how you rob 
a child of his own self-respect. He does not do 
wrong because he is really bad, but because he 
does not know just the best way to do right. I 
believe as James Whitcomb Riley sings, 

^ I believe all children's good, 

Ef they’re only understood; — 

Even bad ones, ’pears to me, 

’S jes’ as good as they kin be.’ 

and I want you to believe it, too, and to make the 
children believe it. Even that will make a dif- 


The Aunt’s Point of View 


29 


ference in the way they look at themselves, and 
at everything else.” 

“ It makes a mother feel better to be able to 
look at it that way, I suppose, anyway,” said Mrs. 
Evans, whether it may really benefit the chil- 
dren, or not.” 

^^To be sure it does,” said Susie. ‘^Just you 
try it and see! In the second place, you have 
made a mistake by telling the child of his every 
fault, and thus by constant reminders, keeping 
the thought of it in his mind, and planting it 
deeper and deeper.” 

But how — ? ” began both ladies at once, and 
then, paused, smiling at one another. 

^^Do not say, ^You are so lazy!’ but instead, 
^How much it pleases me, whenever you are 
ambitious!’ Do not dwell upon the fault at all, 
but praise, instead, the smallest indication of the 
opposite virtue. Do you see?” 

The mothers nodded. 

That gives the mind the uplifting suggestion, 
and the child’s natural desire to please, and to be 
praised, will nurse it to life. Never make a 
practice of saying ‘Don’t!’ about anything, but 
always say ‘Do!’ When you take something 
away, never fail to put something better in its 
place.” 


30 


The Auut^s Point of View 


Pm not sure I catch your meaning there, 
Susie, said Mrs. Evans. If we never said 
‘Don’t!’ they would run into all kinds of dif- 
ficulties!” 

“Not if you understand the way to put the 
matter. What I mean is this. Instead of saying, 
‘Don’t walk on that side of th^ street!’ say 
‘Walk on this side of the street!’ Instead of 
saying, ‘Don’t sit in that chair!’ say ‘Sit in this 
chair!’ Instead of saying, ‘Don’t soil your 
apron!’ say, ‘Be sure and keep your apron nice 
and clean!’ It is merely a difference in the way 
you give the suggestion, but it makes more real 
difference than you may realize.” 

“I see!” said Mrs. Evans. 

“ Above all, you must not see the little failings 
you have been telling me of as any part of the 
children at all. They are not. Your children are 
not lazy, nor stubborn, nor disobedient, nor any- 
thing of the sort. They have been thinking that 
kind of thoughts, — perhaps handed down to them, 
— and have got into those habits of thought, and 
so of action, — but this is not the real self of the 
child. That is good, and sweet and true and alto- 
gether lovely, because a part of All-Good, — ‘ in 
the image and likeness of God.’ The habits are 
so superificial, they can be easily brushed away, 
when the right kind of thoughts are encouraged. 


The Aunt^s Point of View 


31 


and the real self is allowed to come to the sur- 
face! 

But does not the Bible say, ‘ By their fruits, 
ye shall know them?^ asked Mrs. Johnson. If 
it isn’t the real self that we shall know by the 
habit, what is it?” 

A self choked back from bearing its real fruit 
by weeds, and unnatural growths, Anna. The 
child, itself, is good — all good! If you persist in 
thinking it is bad, you keep the evil suggestion 
bound tightly about its truer aspirations, and 
ciioking the life out of all its natural tendencies 
toward goodness and truth, until, it has no chance 
to express its true inner self at all. What kind 
of fruit could it possibly bear? You must just 
refuse to see, or accept, or even look for, any- 
thing at all but the best in each child, — believe 
in the good underneath the unpromising surface, 
— nurse it, coax it, encourage it to sprout and 
grow until it blossoms and bears fruit before your 
very eyes! It will, — it surely will! It cannot 
help it! ” 

I suppose that is what you call ^ New Thought,^ 
Susie,” said Mrs. Johnson. 

“ Something of it,” assented Susie, though 
there is really nothing ‘new’ about it at all. 
Indeed, it is the oldest thought in the world, com- 


32 


The Aunt’s Point of View 


ing down to us from the creation, when ^ God saw 
the world, that it was good.’ Take it home to 
yourself a minute. Would you find it easy to do 
right, if you knew that everybody was continually 
watching for you to do wrong? It is like the poor 
girl or boy, who, because one misstep has been 
taken, knows the whole world is watching them, 
expecting them to do only the same bad things, 
over and over, over and over again. Having no 
hand to lift them up, or even expect them to get 
up, is it any wonder that they go from bad to 
worse until every good impulse, every noble in- 
stinct, is stified, literally choked to death by the 
cruel suggestions, both of mind and voice, of a 
blind and misunderstanding old world, not one 
bit better in the inner self, than the ones they 
have condemned? O that we might all hurry and 
wake up to the truth! As I said before, Louise, 
Anna, — would you find it easy to be ^good’ in 
every action, if somebody kept always telling you 
that you were wrong, and you knew that all your 
little world had the same thought, — the same 
expectations — of you?” 

“ No, of course not! ” admitted both ladies in a 
breath. 

“ Then give your child the same chance to be 
good, that you ask for yourself. Take your 
mental hands off them, and let them he good. They 


The Aunt’s Point of View. 


33 


can’t help being good, I know, if you will give 
them the slightest chance to be themselves!” 

“ It would certainly be worth trying, wouldn’t 
it, Anna?” said Mrs. Evans, after a pause. 

‘‘ Indeed, yes,” said Mrs. Johnson. Anything 
in all the world would be worth trying that would 
make the Johnson young ones any better, or 
easier to get along with!” Then she added, 
dubiously, If it would only work!” 

Susie smiled, but made no comment upon the 
implied doubt. 

^‘I have a proposition to make to you both,” 
she said. ‘^I have two long months before my 
school opens this fall, and I wish you would give 
the training of the children entirely into my 
hands while I am here.” 

All of them? ” gasped Mrs. Evans, looking at 
Mrs. Johnson in utter amazement. 

^‘The whole fourteen!” replied Susie firmly, 
with a smile. ‘‘And Bruno thrown in, for good 
measure.” 

“But, Susie,” protested Mrs. Johnson, “after 
you have been working for ten whole months 
with so many children, to come away off out 
here to get some rest, and then take two whole 
families on your hands for the vacation, — it seems 
like an imposition on our part!” 

Susie laughed merrily. 


34 


The Aunt’s Point of View 


I shall love it,” she said. ^^The dear things! 
Children are my specialty, you know, — my one 
particular hobby, — and I really should not enjoy 
myself at all during the summer, if I didn’t have 
a dozen or so of them to be thinking of, and doing 
something for! ” 

Well, they, at least, would enjoy it,” said Mrs. 
Evans, with a touch of feeling. She had always 
been just a little jealous of her children’s frank 
preference for their Aunt Susie. 

I only stipulate one thing,” said Susie, and 
that is, that neither of you shall interfere at all 
with any of my plans or propositions. Let me say 
and do whatever my impulses may lead to, and 
follow out every impression, just as it comes. 
You can trust me, I think.” 

Trust you? ” said Mrs. Johnson, reproachfully. 

“ Why, Susie! ” protested Mrs. Evans, almost in 
the same breath. 

And how about Ben and Charles? We must 
not enter into any definite agreement without 
their full sanction and approval,” said Susie. 

“O pshaw!” said Mrs. Evans, “Charles would 
be only too glad to have anything in the world 
going on, if it would only make the young ones 
any less of a bother to him. He has even 
threatened to hand the whole ^ bunch ’ to some 
far-away orphan asylum!” 


The Aunt^s Point of View 


35 


It might be better for the children in the long^ 
run/^ thought Susie, but she said nothing, merely 
turning to Mrs. Johnson, as that lady began to 
speak. 

“ As for Ben,” said she, he would never even 
know that there was anything at all out of the 
ordinary going on! He is always so completely 
wrapped up in his business affairs, that he never 
once thinks of his home and family, unless 
absolutely compelled to recognize their existence. 
He has always left the care and managment of 
the children entirely to me!” 

Nevertheless,” insisted Susie, I prefer that 
they should both be consulted before we come to 
any final decision. I feel that it would be a rest 
for you both, and a help to both you and the 
children in many. ways. In the meantime, I can 
give you both a clearer, more complete under- 
standing of my ideas on the subject, and I am 
sure you will find the care of the children here- 
after, — and certainly, the worry about their many 
so-serious faults, — a much lighter burden, — if, 
indeed, it is any burden at all! I will speak to 
Charles myself about the matter, just as soon as 
he comes home, and if I can see Ben ” 

“ O I’ll talk to Ben, if you insist,” said Mrs. 
Johnson, though he’ll only grunt out a word of 
no particular meaning, and ask why ^ in thundera- 
tion ’ I bothered him with the matter! ” 


36 


The Aunt’s Point of Yiew 


The sisters laughed aloud at this quite too 
truthful picture of what they knew to be a char- 
acteristic manner of the self-centred Mr. John- 
son, and the subject was dropped for the time 
being, as they drifted dreamily back into re- 
miniscences of their own girlhood, when they, too, 
had doubtless caused their parents the same 
anxiety and care that they themselves were ex- 
periencing now, in their own growing flock. 

You were certainly never meant for an old 
maid, Susie,” they said, ‘^and it’s very hard to 
realize that you actually are one! But I suppose 
figures won’t lie!” 

‘^No, indeed! — or, at least, if ^figures’ will, 
faces won’t!” she replied. “And I assure you, 
girls, that I am every bit as old as I look! — 
though I certainly don’t feel it!” 

And she looked so irresistibly girlish and 
charming as she said this, though she was in 
reality the oldest in years of the three sisters, 
that they laughed outright, while each secretly 
wished that she, too, had fathomed their sister’s 
secret of keeping so provokingly young! 


CHAPTER IV 


THE CHILDREN'S POINT OF VIEW 

^|"^HE next day was Sunday, and while Aunt 
Susie might quite reasonably be expected 
to be very tired after her long journey from the 
big city, so many miles away, she was up bright 
and early and ready for a long, glad day with! 
her little charges. 

All of the children had always been very faith- 
ful attendants at the little Sunday School of the 
orthodox church, — the only church in the little 
village, — not from any particular interest it had 
so far succeeded in arousing in their young hearts, 
but because they had been brought up from their 
earliest years to consider it a very vital part of 
their weekly duty, and they had never thought 
it even possible to miss a single Sunday. 

Just what they had ever really learned at Sun- 
day School, it would have been very hard to say! 
In just what particular light they really viewed 
the matter, it would be harder still to say. To 
be sure, it afforded them a change from the 
37 


38 


The Children’s Point of View 


monotonous round of the week, — it was some 
place to go, — something to do, — but if they had 
been asked to express an honest opinion, I am 
sure that every one of them would have preferred 
to get out into the heart of the woods where the 
birds sing, and the waters laugh, in response to 
the kiss of the murmuring breeze, — and there let 
Nature’s God speak at will to each little soul, 
planting the seed of the great truth of which that 
particular soul was most in need, and most ready 
for, without the too-often blundering interference 
of any incompetent human interpreter. 

Far be it, however, from any plan or wish of 
'Aunt Susie’s, to interfere with any religious 
education her sisters might have begun to instil. 
It was not her purpose to tear down, but to build 
up, — patch up — clean up, — in some cases, perhaps, 
cover up with flowers of truth the old worn-out, 
tottering creeds that were still tyrannically 
dominating so many minds. 

Fortunately, for the children, there was no 
Sunday School service at all on this particular 
day. There happened to be a large Sunday 
School Convention at some other town in the 
county to which all the teachers and officers had 
been summoned in attendance, and this left the 
little Evanses and Johnsons conveniently free to 
roam the woods at their own sweet will. 


The Children’s Point of View; 


39 


Of course the fathers concerned had only too 
gladly waived all paternal claims upon their 
young hopefuls for the coming two months, and 
they had planned to spend this first day in the 
big woods near by, with a lunch, and a jug of 
lemonade, and fourteen very happy and expectant 
little faces, not to forget the dog, whose wagging 
tail eloquently testified to the pleasure he could 
only voice in his quick, short barks of approval 
and doggy ” appreciation. 

They were indeed a merry party, as they 
always were when with Aunt Susie. Some gay 
spirit lurking deep within her own nature always 
seemed to call forth all the joy of living in the 
naturally light hearts of happy childhood; and 
laugh answered laugh, jest followed jest, song 
responded to song, each seeming to vie with the 
other as to who might be the happiest, while 
bird, and bee, and breeze, and streamlet echoed 
back each glad and cheery thought. 

It was just the very day for new beginnings. 
Aunt Susie thought, as she smiled up at the 
splendid sun, peeping down at her in radiant love 
and light and life from between the branches of 
the trees, — a day filled with the very spirit of 
inspiration and hope and faith and cheer! And, 
leading her band of youthful companions to a 
delightfully cozy little glade, through which 


40 


The Children’s Point of View 


rippled and danced a happy streamlet, singing its 
gladsome lay as it smiled its loving messages 
in response to the brooding blue sky overhead, 
she began to prepare the lunch, and soon found 
herself seated upon the green, flower-covered 
carpet, and looking happily in turn into fourteen 
pairs, — no, I was forgetting Bruno again, — into 
fifteen pairs of eyes, that returned her loving 
glances with all the love of their warm, throbbing 
young hearts. 

It has been nearly two years since we last had 
a day together in the dear old woods like this, 
hasn’t it, my dears?” she began. 

Yes,” was the response from all fourteen 
pairs of lips, trying hard to sound mournful, — for 
two whole years is really a very, very long time, 
when measured by the mind of a child, — ^but find- 
ing the expression of regret peculiarly modified 
by the crowded mouthfuls of food that checked 
their forceful utterance. 

“And I wonder,” added Aunt Susie, “how 
much you have all learned in this long time of the 
real things in the world that make life so much 
worth the living!” 

The children stared at her. Of course they had 
been to school, and learned whatever the teachers 
had compelled them to learn, but none of them 
seemed to have found that it made their lives any; 


The Children’s Point of View^ 


41 


different than they had been before. They had 
had some fine times, some big fights, some hard 
blows, some great disappointments, and some 
really hard tasks to do, they thought, but just 
what it had all meant to them in their every-day 
lives, they had never once stopped to consider. 
What did Auntie Sue mean? She always had 
such a way of her own of putting things! 

She laughed at the troubled expression of their 
eyes, as she looked from one to the other. 

I mean,” she explained, how much have you 
learned of your real selves, — ^that great big Me 
that lives inside of every one of you?” 

For a moment, the murmuring of the stream, 
and the twittering of the birds in the tree-tops 
were the only sounds that broke the silence. 

Each seemed wondering what to say, and after 
a time, it was really pitiful to see each little face 
fall, as some painful memory sprang to life to 
tell the tender little conscience how very bad the 
child had sometimes been. 

I know Pm mean, and cruel, and — and — all 
that! ” said Will, the eldest of the crowd, hanging 
his head with shame at the remembrance of cer- 
tain parental words that still carried their sting 
in the boyish memory. ^^Pve found out that 
much about my real self, all right!” he added, 
bitterly. 


42 


The Children’s Point of Viewi 


Will was almost fifteen, and he had been made 
to feel himself, in some way he could not quite 
understand, as almost altogether responsible for 
all the weaknesses and failures of the whole 
family, if not the family of cousins, too; for 
Henry, the eldest of the Johnson children, was 
only thirteen, and so, in Will’s eyes, very much 
of a child yet, for whose naughtinesses, it 
naturally stood to reason, those who were older, 
and therefore, wiser than he, must stand ac- 
countable. 

Pm not so mean,” said Henry, following, as 
usual, the lead of his cousin, for whom he enter- 
tained the admiration and affection that a 
younger boy is apt to feel for an elder. “ But 
Pm as — as — as ‘ stubborn as a mule! ’ ” 

I’m just a lazy, good-for-nothing thing,” said 
Hattie. “ I don’t like to work. I never will 
amount to anything in all the world, I guess.” 

And so it went on, through the whole crowd, 
each confessing his own little weakness as freely 
as in the Confessional, but with a certain hopeless 
shame that was very touching to the keen eyes 
so skilled in reading the faces of children, and 
interpreting the unspoken thought. 

She patted the curly head of little Pete, who 
nestled close beside her, never very far away 


The Children's Point of View, 


43 


when it was possible for him to edge his little 
body near. 

How about you, Pifer? she asked, cares- 
singly, but with a tremble in her voice that she 
could scarcely steady, for the little fellow was 
very dear to her heart. Have you no great, 
awful sins to tell Auntie Sue all about?’’ 

O I’s just a natural born liar. Auntie Sue,” 
he said carelessly, smiling up at her. I never 
tries to tell the truth, you know! ” His confiding 
eyes met hers with so innocent an expression, 
that, in spite of the pain his words caused her, 
she felt that he could not possibly understand 
their meaning, and smiled a sad little smile as 
she pressed her lips to his. 

Indeed, she had winced inwardly at each 
separate confession, as she recognized in these 
expressions the very words of their mothers, and 
realized how relentlessly their suggestions of 
inherent evil must have been sounded into the 
childish ears that they had already learned their 
lessons so well. 

Poor little innocents!” she thought, “and 
poor, mistaken mothers! I have, indeed, a big 
work ahead of me in these two short months! — 
many harmful thoughts to uproot, and counteract 
by fresh, new seed, — much mischief to undo! 
May I have sufficient light and strength and 


'441 The Children’s Point of View 


wisdom and love and patience and faith from 
the Great Source that I may not fail to per- 
form the mission well!” 

She skillfully led the conversation away from 
these unhappy thoughts, and qualms of self- 
accusation, and soon had them laughing as madly 
and merrily as ever. Thank God for the short 
memories of childhood! 

Just before leaving the enchanted spot for the 
return home, she said to them, seriously. 

Now, my dears, I have come to visit you all 
for two long months, and we must plan to get 
just all out of them we possibly can, mustn’t 
we? ” 

There was, of course, a general assent to this, 
and she went on hastily, 

Of course, I shall have to give a great deal of 
my time to the mammas, and my books, and 
letters, but you remember what our poet says, — 
I am sure you have learned it at school, 

^Between the dark and the daylight. 

When the night is beginning to lower, 
Comes a pause in the day’s occupations. 

That is known as the children’s hour,’ 

and that hour I shall never fail to give to yon. 
rYou must tell me all your little troubles, if you 


The Children's Point of ViejK 


45 


have any, and all your plans, your wishes, your 
thoughts, — ^just all about yourselves, you know, 
and I, in return, will tell you 

Fairy tales? asked fourteen eager voices, in 
one breath. 

And poems?” added two or three, as an after- 
thought. 

For Aunt Susie sometimes wrote little rhymes 
and jingles that the children thought were just 
the most wonderful poems ever written in all the 
world; and they were never tired of hearing her 
repeat them, or read them, and always learned 
for themselves just as many of them as they 
could. 

A flash of sudden light burst upon her at the 
word. 

Poems, of course ! ” she thought. I can 
weave into my little rhymes many of the mighty 
truths I want to plant deep into their memories, 
and thus teach them much that I might not be 
able to present to such young minds intelligently, 
in any other way!” 

Fairy tales, of course! — if you really want 
them,” she answered, and we’ll see if we can’t, 
by our very own selves, make some of the very 
best of them come true. And poems? — yes, too! — 
just as many as I can fit into the fairy tales, and 


46 


The Children’s Point of View, 


as you will all promise me to learn and remem- 
ber.” 

“ O Auntie Sue, we can remember — began the 
crowd enthusiastically, pausing for a promise 
that they might feel sure they would all be able 
to keep. 

“Millions and millions!” added little Pete. 

And at this, they all burst into such a laugh 
of real enjoyment, that the number they would 
learn was never more definitely stipulated. 

“When shall we begin. Auntie Sue?” asked 
Olive, eager for a chance to monopolize as much 
of her aunt’s society as was possible, from the 
very outset. “ To-night? ” 

“No, not to-night, dear,” was the reply. “We 
have had a whole long happy day together, and 
it will be quite time after supper for little bodies 
and brains to be stretching out for rest. Be- 
sides, don’t you think that Mamma might like to 
see a little of Auntie Sue, after all this time? 
But, to-morrow night, just after supper, — and 
every night, thereafter, so long as Auntie Sue is 
here, — we will have our Children’s Hour, — and a 
whole, sixty-minute hour, just before we go to 
bed, — when nobody else in all the world shall 
have any right to intrude upon us, or say a 
single, solitary word!” 

This announcement was greeted with a cheer 


The Children's Point of View^ 


47 


that made the old woods ring with the thrill 
of happy expectations, while Bruno leaped and 
barked in sympathy with the prevailing senti- 
ment in which, no doubt, he heartily joined; and 
it was a very merry crowd that soon afterward 
started on the homeward walk, clustering around 
Aunt Susie like bees around a rose. 

And thus it was that the matter was arranged 
to the complete satisfaction of all concerned; 
and thus, too, it was that this little story came 
to be written. 


CHAPTER V, 


f‘THE SONGS WE SING*2 

TT was that same Sunday evening, after the 
supper things had been cleared away, and 
Aunt Susie had retired to her room to write some 
letters in time to catch the early morning post, 
that the children gathered around the parlor 
organ for some music. Hearing the soft strains 
floating up from the room just under her own. 
Aunt Susie was about to join the family and add 
her voice to the melody, when she paused, in the 
centre of her little room, and stood very still, 
her attention irresistibly attracted by the nature 
of the words they were singing: 

Jesus, Saviour, pity me 
Hear me when I cry to thee, 

I^ve a very wicked heart. 

Full of sin in every part. 

When I try to do thy will. 

Sin is in my bosom still. 

And I soon do something bad; 

Then my heart is dark and sad.^^ 

48 


'‘The Songs We Sing’’ 


49 


Aunt Susie shuddered. No wonder they 
thought themselves beyond all hope, when these 
songs were being so firmly planted into their 
little minds! — such ideas of themselves embodied 
in the very words of their " hymns of praise.” 

The air was changing now, and she listened 
eagerly, hoping for some change in the sentiment 
of the words that were ascending into the vast 
spaces of heaven from those little innocent 
voices! — What did she hear? 

" I’m thinking of my sins, 

What wicked things I’ve done! 

How very naughty I have been. 

Although I am so young! 

" How wicked is my heart ! 

How can I be forgiven? 

Should I with earth be called to part, 

I could not sing in heaven.” 

The song went on. What the rest of the 
heretical statements may have been. Aunt Susie 
did not hear. She sank down into her chair, and 
gave herself entirely up to an hour of serious 
reflection. What could she do or say against the 
influence of such a daily atmosphere as this? — 
such an all-pervading sentiment, — such a real 


50 


“The Songs We Sing^^ 


part of their life and thought? It was so much 
worse than she had realized! 

Again the music changed, and her attention 
was forcibly attracted, but alas! There was no 
change in the thought expressed! Were these 
cruel, blighting words all the songs their young 
minds knew? Was this how they attemped to 
“rejoice, and be exceeding glad?^’ — how they 
tried to “make a glad noise unto the Lord?” 

“Heavenly Father, pity me. 

For my soul is full of sin; 

I have wandered far from Thee, 

O, how wicked I have been! 

Can I ever be forgiven? 

Can my sins be washed away? 

So that I shall sing in Heaven, 

Where from Thee no children stray? 

“Canst Thou love a WICKED CHILD, 

Who has often disobeyed? 

Canst Thou ever on me smile. 

As if from Thee Fd not strayed? 

Often, Father, Thou hast called. 

But I did not listen then; 

Surely I will hearken now. 

If Thou wilt but speak again.” 

Back went Aunt Susie’s mind to her own child- 


^^The Songs We Sing^’ 


51 


hood, many, many years before, when she had 
lived in mch utter terror of a harsh, relentless 
God and His fiery lake of torment. Over and 
over, she lived some of those horrible nights of 
the baby years, when because of some trifling 
fault she was all to^k-conscious of having com- 
mitted, she had crouched beneath the bed-clothes, 
shuddering and shrinking ^i»om the hideous 
memory of her sin, and fearing uncover her 
head, lest the glaring eye of an angry owi should 
pierce to the depths of her quivering heart, ivnd 
send her, in the twinkling of an eye, all unfor- 
given and unblessed, to His terrible hell, there to 
burn, and burn, and burn, forever and ever! ” — 
as the well-meaning preacher in the little church 
she attended had so often said. Verily, did she 
cry out in her agony for the merciful “ rocks and 
mountains ” of darkness and sleep to hide her 
away from His avenging sight ! 

Must this be the fate of these dear children, 
too? Was this cruel doctrine the theology that 
was being instilled into their trusting little souls 
from the innocent-looking little church around the 
corner? Those dear, sweet little ones, — so per- 
fectly formed for happiness and joy, — could she 
not save them? She must! She must! Was it 
not for this very purpose that she had been sent 
to them at this time? She believed it was, — ^yes. 


52 


“The Songs We Sing” 


she felt within herself the assurance that it was. 

But even with the assurance, as if in Jemoniac 
mockery of the thought, a new song came floating 
up to her, every word clear, and most painfully 
distinct : 

“ Although a child, Tre often sought 
To know th- way to heaven; 

Of Jesus I long been taught, 

But n^ver been forgiven. 

With sorrow deep Pve ne’er confessed 
How wicked I have been; 

But look, O Lord, within my breast 
And teach me all my sin! 

“ O Lord ! how can I come to Thee, 

All covered o’er with sin? 

My wicked heart would from Thee flee, 

So sinful I have been! 

“Black marks of sin are on my soul, 

Sin is my only dress; 

My wickedness can ne’er be told, 

I have no righteousness.” 

This, happily, seemed to end the program for 
the evening, and the unwilling listener upstairs 
breathed a sigh of the most intense relief. She 


^^The Songs We Sing’^ 


53 


sat alone in her little room, listening to the 
scattering of the many little feet, as they made 
their way to their various rooms, and then, with 
an earnest prayer breathed to the Source of all 
Strength, that she might be given the right words 
at the right time and place to lift her little 
charges out of the darkness that was threatening 
to engulf them, she rose quietly and joined her 
sister in the little parlor below. 

Where have you been all this time, Susie?” 
asked her sister. ^^Why didn’t you come down 
sooner? The children were having some music, 
and they seemed quite lost without you to take 
your part in it.” 

Susie looked at her sister seriously. 

I did take my part in it, Louise, — the part of 
a grieved and quite unwilling listener! — the only 
part I could possibly take in any such so-called 
‘ music ’ as that! ” she said, earnestly. 

Why, what do you mean. Sue? I thought the 
children sang very sweetly to-night. I always 
enjoy hearing them.” 

Of course they sang sweetly, — bless their 
dear, unstained little souls!” was the quick 
response. How could they help but sing 
sweetly? But O Louise! Louise! what sort of 
thing did they sing? What sort of a thought 
were they in that very sweetness impressing upon 


54 


^^The Songs We Sing^’ 


the very depths of their souls? How can you let 
them even read or hear such words, — let alone 
say them, or sing them? Do you not know what a 
large part all these things play in the building up 
of their characters? Do you not know how true 
it is that 

^The songs we sing, like the thoughts we bear. 
Are building our lives for us, everywhere? ’ 

Have you so far forgotten how our own young 
lives were shadowed by just such false teachings 
as these, that you can rest so contentedly while 
the same black cloud settles down upon your own 
dear innocent babies?” 

Mrs. Evans looked troubled. She walked to 
the organ and took from the music rack the 
little hymnal from which they had been singing. 

It is the little book we are using in the Sun- 
day School, Susie, and everybody seems to like 
the music very much. And the tunes are so easy 
to carry that the children pick them up very 
easily. It never occurred to me to criticize the 
book in any way.” 

Let me see it,” said Susie, and she took the 
book in her hand with an ill-concealed sense of 
scorn that was almost loathing, and turned the 
pages. Poor little babies,” she said, at last, to 


^^The Songs We Sing^’ 


55 


be forced to take into their spiritual systems 
such sour-niilk as this, just because it never 
occurred to their blind little mother to see that 
the food provided was properly sterilized, and 
that the bottles were thoroughly clean. Be very 
careful, my dear sister, that you do not pay such 
close attention to these healthy little bodies, — 
which God forbid that you should neglect! — ^that 
you utterly overlook the greater, more vital needs 
of the soul, — the spirit, — that shall animate these 
bodies in the future!’^ 

She looked at the little book critically. Then 
she turned to the cover. 

Humph!” she said. Especially adapted for 
seasons of deep religious interest, to attract the lost 
little ones into the fold’ Should rather say, ^ to 
scare them in,^ if they were strictly truthful! 
What can men and women of mature minds be 
thinking of, to put out such a collection of 
poisonous rhymes and rhythms, and allow their 
little children to dope their easily-impressed souls 
with the sapping narcotic, till they are completely 
under its murderous power? Listen to this, 

‘ Why have I these awful longings? 

Why this seeking after peace? 

Why do tears flow like a fountain. 

Till I cannot make them cease? 


56 


^^The Songs We Sing^’ 


^ Oh, my soul is dart as midnight, 

Not one ray of light within! 

I can see but the sickening horror 
Of my dark and loathsome sin! 

^ And I know I^ve been too wicked 
For the Lord to let me in; 

Jesus never can forgive me 

All my foul and hideous sin!’^^ 

don’t believe I ever stopped to really con- 
sider the full significance of the words before, 
Susie,” said Mrs. Evans, apologetically. I 
really don’t. To tell the truth, my mind is so apt 
to be on the work of to-morrow, that I don’t take 
in more than the air, and — well, if it is pretty, 
and they carry it well, it seems to satisfy me. 
At least, it has never made any other sort of 
impression on me.” 

And you have not been horrified to listen to 
your children singing these terrible confessions 
of unpardonable sin? You have not felt any need 
of investigating into their daily lives and search- 
ing for the crimes they freely admit having com- 
mitted?” asked Susie, almost severely. 

Susie! — don’t! I’m fully enough' roused 
now, — really I am! Just tell me how to correct 
the mistake, now that I have begun to see it! 


‘^The Songs We Sing’’ 


5 ^ 


We can’t control the music of the church and 
Sunday School, can we? We can’t tell them 
what they shall sing or shall not sing. We can’t 
even forbid the children singing while they are 
there, — nor — nor — keep them at home!” 

I was not going to suggest any such radical 
measures, Louise. Don’t think me such a tyrant 
in the enforcement of my views. But I am going 
to do all I can to counteract the influence by 
sweet, happy, uplifting songs in the home, — the 
very sweetest and happiest, — set to these very 
airs! I know they’d rather sing Auntie Sue’s 
songs any day than these! And I’ll write a song 
for every air, but that they shall have new 
associations for such really pretty melodies.” 

And with this plan in view as the best possible 
solution of the problem for the present, the sisters 
separated for the night, — Mrs. Evans to wonder 
at her past blindness, and Susie to further out- 
line her plans for the enlightenment of the days 
to come. 


CHAPTER VI 


THE REAL SELF 

A ll the next day, there was an eager, excited 
state of mind very easy to see and read 
below the words and acts of each of the children, 
as they went about the little duties of the day, 
and frisked at their games and sports about the 
yard. 

They could hardly wait for night to come. 
Aunt Susie’s fairy-tales were always so different 
from other people’s fairy-tales. They were so 
well worth hearing and remembering. And had 
she not promised them that this was to be one 
they themselves might, in some queer way, 
perhaps, help to come true? 

All through the preparing of supper, the eyes 
of the Evans’ children followed the hands of the 
big clock over the mantel, wondering why they 
would persist in moving so slow? And when the 
meal was at last on the table, they ate so 
greedily, and in such evident haste, that they 
were all ready to push back their chairs and 
58 


The Keal Self 


59 


get away from the table before the rest of the 
family had made a fair start. 

But all things come to an end at last, — even the 
longest meal. And, at the usual hour, the dishes 
were cleared away, the table pushed back, and 
the rest of the family had been banished to the 
sitting-room to make room, they were told, for 
the eager little Johnsons, who came speedily 
trooping in to claim their seats. 

Aunt Susie had already lighted a fire in the 
grate, for the evenings were always chilly in this 
little western village, and the fiames now crackled 
and sparkled brightly, in a welcome of comfort 
and cheer. Even Bruno was stretched out on the 
hearth-rug, with his big brown eyes fixed upon 
Aunt Susie, while Ira and little Pete nestled 
close beside him, their small fingers always busy 
with his shaggy coat, as their heads rested close 
together upon his broad back. 

As the bright, warm light fell in a rosy reflec- 
tion upon the fourteen eager faces, i^unt Susie 
breathed a prayer that some word of hers might 
plant some seed-thought, however small, in each 
little soul, that the years might nurse into 
wonderful growth of thought or deed! And Aunt 
Susie knew, too, that every earnest prayer, made 
in faith believing, is answered in the very hour 
of its breath! 


60 


The Keal Self 


Where does the fire come from, Auntie 
Sue?’’ asked Pete, suddenly. Pete was a great 
talker, for a boy of his years, but his mother 
and the others often said that he seldom had 
anything but a question on his lips, and usually 
a question that no one in earth or heaven could 
answer. Even his eyes, when he turned them 
upon you, were so full of big, unanswerable ques- 
tions that they made you feel uneasy, somehow, 
with the fathomless depths of their great wonder. 
That is, this is the way it was when he was not 
engaged in spinning some of those wonderful 
stories for which he was so famous. Then his 
little tongue really seemed hung in the middle, 
and loaded with fantastical tales at both ends, 
with no spot or place for the introduction of any 
sort of a question. 

Whence came those stories?” Auntie Sue 
asked herself, as she now looked down into his 
eager little face. Might it not be that the 
blessed baby finding no answers to his questions 
in all the world, had set out to settle a few of 
them for himself?” 

“ Where does the fire come from? ” he had just 
asked, and several of the children had chimed at 
once, in answer. 

Out of the wood, of course! ” 


The Real Self 


61 


But how does it get in the wood in the first 
place? ” the little fellow persisted. 

Aunt Susie looked smilingly around her little 
circle, but for this, no one had an answer. 

All through the tree’s life-time, dear,” she 
answered, ‘^it has been drinking in the bright, 
warm rays of sunshine, and storing up in all its 
branches and twigs, the heat and light of summer, 
together with the warm food it draws from the 
ground where its feet are planted, from the air 
all around its head and trunk, and even from the 
rains and the dews that give it drink. All these 
things give it heat in some form or other, that 
it may store it up in all its parts, until the time 
comes for it to give it all out to the world again 
to make some little boy ‘ comfy ’ and happy, as it 
is doing to-night. That is the work it has to do 
in the world, you see, dear, just as we all have 
some work of our very own to do.” 

‘‘Work of our very own. Auntie Sue? What 
do you mean?” asked Hattie. 

“ Don’t tell Hattie anything about work. Auntie 
Sue,” said Will, with the instinctive desire to 
“ bully ” and tease, ever to the front. “ She 
doesn’t like it a bit. She’ll lie right down beside 
it and go to sleep.” 

“ O no. Will, — no! I am sure when Hattie once 
knows how very important it is to the growth 


62 


The Real Self 


and development of the whole world that each 
one of us should attend with all possible faith- 
fulness and care to our own little part of the 
work, she will not go to sleep over it, but will 
put forth every effort to do her very best, know- 
ing that it is certainly well ‘ worth doing at all.’ 
and so, according to the old saying, ‘ worth doing 
well.’ And just as our mammas and our papas 
give us little tasks of our own to do every day, 
just as you each have your own chores to attend 
to, so the great Master of Life has given us each 
our own part of the work to do, and we must 
either do it fully and properly, or receive the 
punishment we bring upon ourselves by shirking 
it.” 

But, Auntie Sue,” asked Ethel, how are we 
to know what work we may have to do-by-and-bye? 
How will we find out?” 

^‘That is just what I was coming to, Ethel,” 
smiled Aunt Susie, in reply, and I am glad you 
asked the question. It is not for us to really 
know, now, any more than the tree knew all 
through the long years of its making ready. It 
is just for us to store up all the strength and good- 
ness and love and wisdom that we can drink into 
our souls from all Nature and life, and make it all 
as much a part of ourselves as this fire was a 
part of the wood, though we did not, perhaps. 


The Keal Self 


63 


know it until the time came for it to give it out 
to us. Then, when our time comes to give out 
to the world all that we have stored up within 
us, we shall have no trouble in knowing just what 
form the giving out is to take. The task that 
comes to us to-day is the one important work to 
be done to-day, and by always doing the one 
thing nearest to us in the path, we keep the road 
cleared ahead for the duties that lay beyond. Do 
you understand, dear? When we are ready, the 
work will be ready.’’ 

“ But when must we begin to get ready? ” asked 
Henry. 

You have already begun, dear boy. We begin 
to get ready, just as soon as we begin to 

‘‘ To think? ” asked several in a breath. 

«Why, we always think,” said Olive. 

‘‘Do we?” asked Aunt Susie. “Are you sure 
we always think? It seems to me that if we did, 
we would not say some of the things we say, nor 
do some of the things we do. We would know 
that we were nailing all these things fast into the 
very selves that we were trying to build up, and 
we would be more careful what kind of material 
we put into them.” 

“ But what do you mean by ‘ building up selves,’ 
Auntie Sue,” asked Frank. “ Are we really doing 
that? And how should we go at it? ” 


64 


The Real Self 


That is just what I want to tell you, Frank. 
But I like to have you ask questions, — all of you. 
I can tell from that what you most wish to know, 
you see, and find out just what it is that you are 
most needing to use at this particular place in 
your building. In the first place, we shall have 
to go back to our little talk in the woods yester- 
day, when you all told me what very bad children 
you are,” she said with a smile that robbed the 
words of any bitterness. “ Do you remember? ” 
Yes,” came in one breath from them all. But 
their faces fiushed to even a rosier red than the 
firelight had given them. They loved Auntie Sue 
so much, and they did want her to think well of 
them. They could not bear to have her, of all 
the other people they knew, know how very 
naughty they were! 

“ Well, I want you all, the very first thing, to 
get rid of that idea, wherever it came from,” said 
Aunt Susie. “ You are not naughty. You have 
never been naughty.” 

The children looked at one another in wonder. 
Surely, Aunt Susie would not tell them any- 
thing that was not true, and yet, this was very 
hard to believe. Besides, everybody else knew 
just how bad they had always been. It must be 
that Auntie did not yet know the full extent of 
their bad, bad deeds! 


The Real Self 


65 


Why, Auntie/^ began Frank, with a troubled 

voice, you know ’’ 

Yes, yes, I know all that you all told me 
yesterday, and I don’t want to hear a single 
word of it again, for I am going to forget all 
about it, and I want every one of you to forget 
it, too, just as quickly as possible. Those things 
you told me, my dears, were not your real selves 
at all. Your real selves are good, true, sweet, 
and pure, — never forget that!” 

But when I’m so bad and ^ sassy,’ and talk 
back to folks, you know. Auntie Sue,” began little 
Ira, sitting up straight and looking her full in 

the face. Don’t you fink ” 

You are not bad, dear, — never! It is not you 
that is bad!” she assured him. 

^^Then why do we do bad things?” asked Oma, 
wistfully. ^^They are bad things that we do, 
aren’t they. Auntie Sue?” 

Yes, dear, the things are bad, — very bad. I 
have no excuse at all for their badness. But it 
is the bad thoughts that get hold of you some- 
times that make you do them, before your real, 
good little selves get a chance to put a stop to it 
all, do you see?” 

Why, I don’t know,” said Edna. Where do 
the bad thoughts come from?” 

From many places, dear. From bad habits 


66 


The Keal Self 


of thinking, — bad words you have heard, — bad 
things you see others do, and so, do yourselves 
without stopping to think how bad they are. 
Bad thoughts are like the measles, — when the 
germs are in the air, if we hold ourselves open to 
them, we are any of us liable to catch them. 
'Are you never sorry at all, after you do bad 
things?” 

^‘Always!” came in chorus from fourteen 
penitent voices. 

^‘Well, did you not know that it is your real 
self that was sorry, — the real good, true, sweet 
and pure You inside, — away down in your very 
heart, — that did not like the way the bad 
thoughts made you do?” 

This was a new thought to the children, and 
their little faces brightened, as they, one by one, 
gradually grasped its meaning. 

You have studied all about the Creation, have 
you not, — all of you? You remember how man 
was made?” 

O yes! ” 

Tell us, Will, what you remember about it.” 

“ God made man in His own image and likeness, 
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” 
repeated the boy promptly, as though he were 
reciting the catechism, and feeling very proud of 
his Bibical knowledge. 


The Eeal Self 


67 ! 


^^Yes, that is right; and that real Self, mj^ 
dears, is still, as it has alw,ays been, and ever 
must be, ‘ in the image and likeness of God.’ So 
how could it help being all that I said, — good, 
and sweet, and true, and pure? It is for you to 
keep all the bad thoughts cleared away now, for 
they are like brush and rubbish piled oyer the 
real Self, you know, and keep people from finding 
out just how good and sweet the real You is. 
The pile of bad thoughts is so big, you know, 
that it is all they can see. How can they guess 
what you have hidden down under all that, till 
you get it raked away, and burned up? ” 

People won’t believe it, anyway,” said Henry. 

O yes, they will, Henry; when you once realize 
it yourself, — realize it so thoroughly, that you just 
can’t forget it any hour of the day, — you will 
be surprised to see how soon other people will 
find it out! ” 

How?” asked Olive. 

O people know what we are thinking, — much 
more than we have any idea that they do!” 

Why, Auntie Sue, how can they? ”’ asked 
Ethel, doubtfully. 

Our thoughts go out into the air, dear, — just 
as our words do, — and other people’s mind catch 
them, just as their ears catch the sound of our 
words. Do you see?” 


GS 


Tlie Keal Self 


But do they know? ” asked Alice, with wide- 
open eyes. 

‘‘They know what you are thinking, but they 
do not always know why they know,^’ answered 
Aunt Susie. “ Every thought we send out has its 
influence for good or bad, and lives on, and on, and 
on, in somebody’s mind and memory, or in the very 
waves of the air, — always, forever alive. Do you 
not all see, then, how very careful we must be 
what kind we send out? A little girl I know has 
this rule written in all her books at school, — and 
I am sure she follows it, too, for she is such a 
sweet, bright little girl that everybody is glad to 
have her near them, — ‘When you think a bad 
thought, send a good one right out after it!” 

“That’s a fine rule. Auntie, if thoughts are 
really as strong things as you say,” said Frank. 

“And now, do you not all see what I meant 
when I said awhile ago that I wondered whether 
or not we had really begun to think?” asked 
Aunt Susie. 

The children were silent, turning these things 
over and over in their minds. They had never 
once dreamed before that it made any difference 
at all what anybody thought. Of course it made 
a difference what they said or did, — but thmightf 
That was certainly something new. 

“ I didn’t think it mattered what a fellow 


The Keal Self 


69 


thought,” said Frank, if he only kept his 
thoughts to himself!” 

^^But you see, Frank,” said Aunt Susie, ^^he 
canT possibly keep them to himself, — no, even if 
he lived all by himself on a desert island, in the 
middle of the ocean. The air would carry his 
thoughts across to the dwellings of men, till they 
found a lodging place in somebody’s mind.” 

But,” said Henry, I can’t make out yet why 
you say it is the most important thing. Surely 
what we say matters more, and what we do 
matters lots more! How can it mean so terribly 
much what we think within our own minds?” 

Do you not have to think before you speak? — 
do you not think about a thing before you do it? ” 

^^Of course!” 

Then thoughts must be the eggs out of which 
are hatched everything that you say or do, 
mustn’t they? And if you always think right, 
won’t you always be sure to talk right, and act 
right? ” 

^^Sure!” came from several voices at once, as 
the truth burst full upon their little groping 
minds. 

It is just another way, my dears, to put the 
old text, ‘ Out of the abundance of the heart, the 
mouth speaketh,’ and that other even more 
significant one, ^ As a man thinketh in his heart. 


70 


The Keal Self 


so is he ! ’ It means, ^ As a boy thinketh,’ or As 
a girl thinketh,’ too, you know, just exactly as 
much. And the thoughts you think now, are 
building up those real selves you know, into the 
kind of men and women you will very soon be- 
come. It all rests with you, — ^just you, and no- 
body else in all the world, — ^to be just the kind 
of a man or woman you want to be! ” 

^^How?” came the eager question. ^^Tell us 
just how!” 

But the clock was striking the hour. 

Time’s up!” said Aunt Susie. ^^That will 
have to wait for to-morrow night! I guess, any- 
way, you have plenty now to keep you busy think- 
ing all day to-morrow,” she added as each little 
face fell, and each pair of eyes wandered accus- 
ingly to the face of the guilty clock. “ The look 
on your faces reminds me, however, of one thing 
that is very necessary to the building of the right 
kind of a Self, — and that is sunshine. No kind 
of a plant will grow without it, — not even a Self. 
You must always be happy, cheery, sweet, and 
contented, bound to see the bright and glad side 
of everything that comes, in the face of every 
cloud of disappointment or discouragement that 
may seem to be in your sky. This is really a law, 
my dears, that governs the ups and downs of all 
human experience.” 


THe Beal Self 


71 


A. law ? ” asked Henry, who was somewhat in- 
clined to be very much of a law unto himself! 

Yes, a law. The words of the law are few, — 
only two, in fact, — but nevertheless, the law is 
unbending, — rigid, — and must be obeyed, — simply 
must! There is absolutely no way in the world 
of evading it, if you wish to succeed in even the 
smallest thing.’’ 

Give us the law, then, 'A.untie Sue. If it has 
only two words, I am sure I can learn even a 
law! ” said Oma, who was only seven years old, 
and usually found it hard to commit even the 
smallest thing to memory. 

know you can, dear, if you do not know 
it already!” said Aunt Susie, with a smile. 

^^Why, Auntie Sue,” protested Ralph, “what 
do you mean? We children don’t know anything 
about law, — surely not Oma ! ” 

“Nevertheless, I am quite sure you all know 
this one,” insisted Aunt Susie. “As I said be- 
fore, it is of only two words, and here they are: 
^ Keep Smiling’” 

“ Of course we have heard that,” said Edna, 
with an air of importance, while they all laughed. 
“ It’s awful old, you know. Auntie Sue, — but we 
didn’t know it was a law! ” 

“Then I don’t suppose you have always been 
made to keep it,” said Aunt Susie. 


72 


The Keal Self 


afraid not, Auntie Sue,’’ admitted the 

child. 

Then you didn’t really know it, dear. We only 
really, truly know what we ourselves put into 
practice. And yet, how could you help keeping 
it, I wonder, in such a bright, beautiful, sunshiny 
world as this is? Have you never had the Golden 
Text at Sunday School, ^ All things work together 
for good to those who love God? ’ ” 

Sure! ” answered Henry. Lots of times!” 

^‘But you didn’t really believe it, — eh?” asked 
Aunt Susie. 

‘‘Why, — why, — why. Auntie,” stammered 
Frank, “ of course we believe everything that is 
in the Bible, but I am not just sure that .we quite 
understand it.” 

“ Well, take my word for it, my dear, it is all 
truth, — a very, very beautiful truth, — and some- 
time you will have to admit it, even if you cannot 
quite see it now. And I am going to give you one 
of my little verses to learn to keep it always 
firmly fixed in your mind. I want you to say it 
over and over to yourself whenever you are 
tempted, even for one minute, — whatever may 
come, or seem to be coming, mind you! — ^to obey 
the great law of two words, and just, all the 
time, ‘Keep Smiling!’ Here is the verse 

Will snatched a note-book and pencil from his 


The Keal Self 


73 


pocket, to write down the lines, as she repeated 
them. 

I’ll give you all a copy in the morning,” he 
said. 

O there are only four little lines,” said Aunt 
Susie, repeating slowly, and earnestly, 

^ All things work together for good,’ 

The moment you once begin 
To build up your Self in the way you should, 
And uncover the goodness within!” 

But we haven’t had our fairy-tale yet,” pro- 
tested Marion. 

“ You shall surely have it to-morrow night, 
Marion,” promised Aunt Susie. .We simply 
didn’t have time for it to-night, did we? Wait a 
minute, while Will has his pencil and note-book 
handy, and let me see if I can’t think of another 
little verse right off quick, that will help you to 
remember our talk to-night, and keep you from 
forgetting how good the real You inside you 
actually is. How’s this? 

was never really bad, — 

That was some dark dream I had! 

My real Self could never be 
Anything but good, you see! 


74 


The Real Self 


Naughty thoughts cannot have way 
When my real Self has its sway, 

For the breath God breathed in me 
Makes me all I ought to be. 

Now, if you will all learn this, and repeat it 
again and again to yourself, until it becomes true 
to you, it will help you to forget many false ideas 
of things that I do not want you to remember 
that you ever even thought,” said Aunt Susie, 
as they gathered around her for their good-night 
kiss, and then scampered away to their beds. 


CHAPTER VII 


I THE KINGDOM OF THE SOUL 

^€►‘13 EADY for our fairy-tale, Auntie Sue! ” 
cried the six eager voices of the youth- 
ful Johnsons in impatient chorus, the next even- 
ing, as they bounded into the Evans dining-room, 
fully ten minutes ahead of time. 

And Pve learned the little poem!’’ cried Alice. 
“ So have I! ” said Ralph, both of them! ” 

Pooh ! ” said Henry, so have we all, — even 
Ira!” 

And I fink Bruno knows it, too,” said Ira. 

I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if he did,” said 
Aunt Susie, as she put her hands on each side of 
the noble animal’s head, and looked with a smile 
of tender understanding into the big, intelligent 
brown eyes. Indeed, I am not at all sure that 
he may not have known it first of you all.” 

Aunt Susie certainly looked very sweet and 
young this evening in her pretty muslin dress, 
with the fluttering ribbons, and the bunch of 
75 


76 


The Kingdom of the Soul 


bright roses in her belt, all from the same bush 
as the half-opened bud that peeped from the soft 
braids of her dark hair; and the children watched 
her in a frank, deep admiration, as she bustled 
about, and in a remarkably short time, had the 
room all arranged for the perfect enjoyment of 
the Children’s Hour. 

“ And so you are all ready for your fairy-tale? ” 
she asked. “ Well, let me see. What was the 
question we were to answer to-night, first of 
all?” 

“ You were going to tell us how to build up our- 
selves into the men and women we want to grow 
up to be. Auntie Sue,” ventured Frank, at last, 
seeing that none of the older children were in- 
clined to answer. 

To be sure, Frank, — so I was! ” replied Auntie 
Sue, as she finally seated herself in the com- 
fortable rocker in front of the grate. “ And that 
is just the question that the fairy-tale, — which 
you must all be sure to remember is a very true 
fairy-tale, — is to answer. Are you all ready? ” 

''Yes! Yes! Yes!” 

Aunt Susie smiled at the eager chorus of 
responses, and began softly, earnestly, the 
beautiful story she wanted to make so real to 
them. 

" I cannot begin this story with a ^ Once upon 


The Kingdom of the Soul 77 


a time/ children,” she said, “ for it is a story 
that is taking place all the time. It is a ‘ really 
truly ^ story, you know, although it is a fairy- 
tale, and so I guess it will have to begin in an 
altogether different way. Let me see, how will 
this do? 

Yesterday, now, and forever, there stands 
deep down in the very heart of every living man 
and woman, boy and girl, a bright and beauti- 
ful kingdom, — ^the Kingdom of the Soul, — where 
the real Self lives, — the real boy and girl, you 
know, — safely hidden away from everybody to 
whom it does not choose to show itself. In the 
very centre of the Kingdom, stands a big strong 
castle, which is called the Castle of Faith, and it 
is in this castle that the king lives, — the king 
who rules over the entire kingdom, — and, hence, 
over all our lives. The name of this king is 
Desire, and whatever he orders and commands, 
simply has to be. For is he not the king? ” 

But, Auntie Sue,” — began Olive. And all 
the rest looked very ready to chime in with a 
chorus of questions. 

“ Yes, my dears, I know I am not making it 
very plain for little minds, but I think, after a 
little, I can make you understand. You all know 
what ‘desire’ means, don’t you?” 

“ Wish,” answered Will, promptly. 


78 


The Kingdom of the Soul 


^^Want,” said Frank, in almost the same 
breath. 

“ Yes, either ^ wish ’ or ^ want ^ will express it. 
As I said, whatever King Desire commands simply 
has to be! Whatever we really, truly, deeply 
want simply has to come to us. It cannot help it. 
Whatever we really wish to be, we will be. We 
must! ” 

But, Auntie Sue,’^ said Hattie, I have 
wanted so many things that I never got.^^ 

Yes,” said Alice, and I^m very sure that I 
always want to be good, and to do right, and to — 
to — to — mind what is said to me. But — I don’t 
ever seem to do it!” 

“ That is all very true, girls, but the reason is 
simply this. You do not really want to, hard 
enough. Poor King Desire is too weak to enforce 
his orders. Why? Because you want something 
else just as bad, or maybe, worse, and all his 
powers are called into action to bring to pass 
what you want most. For instance, Alice, you 
say you want to mind what is said to you, and 
of course, I know that you do. But you certainly 
cannot want to hard enough, for if you did, you 
would mind, no matter what came up to try to 
draw you away, and then, it would not all end, 
as it so often does, in just a half-hearted want-to! 
The truth is, dear, you want something else 


The Kingdom of the Soul 


79 


worse. You want your own way in some other 
direction, and you get it, simply because your 
King Desire, — who, you know^ rules your soul 
kingdom, and so every act of your life, — is more 
strongly supported in that other direction. The 
main thing is, to know for sure, what you want 
most of all, — w^hat is most worth while, — and 
then, from the Castle of Faith direct King Desire 
to work in the one direction until you get it!^^ 

“ But how does he do it? ” asked Harry, who 
always wanted to know the how ” of every- 
thing. 

“ I was just trying to get to that, Harry. The 
King has a large company of Knights, — hundreds 
and thousands of them, — who do his every 
bidding, and bring all things to pass. Because 
of all these knights, who are always perfectly 
obedient to the King, there is absolutely nothing 
in all the world impossible for him to bring 
about. I wonder if any of you can tell me the 
name of these so-strong Knights! ” 

The children made several different ventures, 
but all of their guesses flew wide of the mark. 
At last, little Pete, who was sitting upon a stool 
at his aunt^s feet, looking dreamily into the fire, 
as he had such an unchildlike habit of doing, 
said in a serious tone, 

I wonder!” 


80 


The Kingdom of the Soul 


And what is little Pifer wondering about 
now?” asked his aunt, as her fingers threaded 
his curls. 

He looked up at her gravely. 

Does you mean thinks, 'Auntie Sue? ” he 
asked, timidly. 

His aunt pulled the little form up to her knee, 
and held it closely to her with a delighted thrill 
of tenderness. 

I most certainly ^ does ’ mean ^ thinks,^ ” she 
said, in a trembling voice. And only to think 
that our baby should have been the first to guess 
it!” 

Thinks? repeated Henry, in a bewildered 
tone. 

“ Yes, Henry, — ^the names of these Knights are 
Thoughts, and as I told you last night. Thoughts 
are living things, and the most powerful things 
in all the world. There are many, many of them 
who are always dressed in spotless white. These 
are the White Knights, or good thoughts, who 
make all good dreams and wishes come true. 
And in nearly every soul-kingdom, all over the 
world, I fear, there are almost as many of the 
Knights who wear black robes, and are the Black 
Knights, or bad thoughts, who bring all bad 
things to pass. Do you see how necessary it is, 
if we wish to build ourselves up to be good, 


The Kingdom of the Soul 


81 


strong, useful men and women, that we should 
think only good thoughts — that we should in- 
struct King Desire to send out only the White 
Knights to do his bidding?’^ 

Isn’t it fine?” said Ethel. 

But why did nobody ever tell us about it 
before, if it is all true?” said Ralph. 

“ Because, Ralph,” said Aunt Susie, “ there are 
a great many very good and well-meaning people 
in the world, who have never yet found out about 
this wonderful Kingdom of the Soul, where King 
Desire and his Knights, live and rule our lives. 
And because they do not know, and have never 
given any attention to the care of the kingdom 
within their own souls, they have let the whole 
Kingdom grow up to weeds, and the rubbish-piles 
collect in the fields, till nobody could get to the 
home of their real Self without digging, and 
mowing a passage, for a long, long time. And 
their Castle of Faith is nothing but a mass of 
crumbling ruins, which they will have to rebuild 
almost from the very foundation, when they at 
last wake up to the real state of affairs, and turn 
their attention from the concerns of their ma- 
terial welfare to the great need of their inner 
life.” 

But you say that we are to direct this King 
Desire, Auntie Sue,” said Hattie. How are we 


82 


The Kingdom of the Soul 


to do it? If we want to be good, why aren’t we 
good right straight off, — just as good as we want 
to be, — without any more fuss about it?” 

There are many reasons, dear. I know I can- 
not make it very plain to you in this one evening, 
but I want to tell you enough so that you will 
all know just how to go to work to at least start 
to build up the selves that are to be the selves 
of the future man and woman, — the real Self each 
one will have to face the big world with, — and 
as you all ^ learn by doing,’ — for you know that 
is the only right way to learn anything, — it will 
little by little become perfectly clear and plain to 
even the youngest of you — yes, even little Pifer, 
with his big ‘ thinks! ’ ” 

And she held the little fellow close that his 
big, questioning eyes might not gaze so persis- 
tently into her own. 

“ You see, Hattie, there are so many reasons 
why you cannot do just as you think you want 
to all in a minute. For a long time, you have 

all been slaves to some great big Giants ” 

Giants!” gasped several, in a breath, staring 
at her with all their eyes. 

Yes, — Giants! — very, very big Giants! And 
they do not intend to let go of you very easily, 
either. O no, indeed! It will mean many, many 
battles for the White Knights, I am sure, before 


The Kingdom of the Soul 


83 


a final, complete victory is gained. But when 
King Desire really gets in earnest, and gives his 
order positively, and holds to it, it will simply 
have to be! 

But who are the Giants, Auntie,” asked 
Marion. I never saw any of them.” 

In your case, dear, I think you are a slave 
to the Giant Quit, — sometimes called the Giant 
Give-Up-Easy! Then, there is the Giant Selfish- 
ness, the Giant Laziness, — the Giant Cowardice, 
— the Giant Conceit, — and all the rest of them.” 

She had been looking from one to the other, 
as she mentioned the particular Giant who held 
each different one in his power, and, one by one, 
the little heads dropped. 

I am sure,” she went on halstily, that you 
can think out all the others for yourselves, now 
that you have grasped my meaning. But, re- 
member, children, the great big king of all the 
Giants is the Giant Thoughtlessness. Most 
people would not believe this, simply beause they 
would not understand what a very powerful 
fellow he is, but it is all very true, for all that. 
If we were not first thoughtless, we would never 
be cruel, or cowardly, or lazy, or selfish, or con- 
ceited, or anything else that the Black Knights 
in our soul-kingdom so often cause us to seem to 
be. Indeed, if everybody always thought, you 


84 


The Kingdom of the Soul 


see, and thought right, there would be no Black 
Knights at all, and then there could not be any 
Giants to annoy you all, and bind you into 
slavery, for the Giants are first created entirely 
by these same Black Knights. Besides, there are 
several other very important members in the 
household of King Desire who help him do his 
work, and there is a great deal more to be told 
you about royal life in the wonderful Castle of 
Faith, in the very heart of the Kingdom of the 
Soul. But I do not want to tell you so much 
about it in this one evening that you will become 
at all confused or mixed up in thinking it over 
afterward, and, as I see the clock is about to give 
us its five minutes warning, ^ of the passing of the 
hour, I will try and put into a few words the 
main thought I want you to carry with you, and 
that is the main answer to your question, ‘ How 
can we build up our real selves into the men and 
women we want to be?^ Every day will be a 
battle with the particular Giant that has both- 
ered you for so long, because, of course the one 
great desire of your life must now be to free your- 
selves from being the slaves these very bad 
Giants have made of you. You don’t any of you 
want to be slaves any longer, do you?” 

‘‘ Ko-sir-ee! ” The reply was unanimous and 
emphatic. 


The Kingdom of the Souls 


85 


Then every single day, you must make King 
Desire send out his White Knights to fight the 
Giants. At every victory they gain, the Giant 
will grow weaker, and the Knights will all grow 
stronger. At the head of the Knights, as I have 
not yet had an opportunity to explain properly 
to you, always rides the King^s very own son. 
Prince Will, — and he is the most powerful force 
in all the world when you keep him busy, in the 
right kind of work. The only fault I have with 
the fellow is that he rides out with the Black 
Knights just as valiantly and proudly as he does 
with the White Knights, when his father’s com- 
mands so direct him. And we must watch closely, 
that he is always re-enforced with only the 
whitest of the Knights. There is no fighter in all 
the soul-kingdom so faithful or enduring, no 
matter on which side he may be fighting, as this 
same brave fellow, — Prince Will!” 

Prince Will?” asked Frank, and the others 
looked the question they did not give verbal ex- 
pression. 

Yes! Indeed, there is nothing in all the world 
that can conquer the human will when it is not 
weakened by, — well, what you might call ‘ lying 
around, and doing nothing’ for so long. He is 
just like some boys and girls, and becomes lazy 
when he is not regularly forced to work, but 


86 


The Kingdom of the Souls 


when he is once his own strong self, nothing can 
resist him, — not all the Giants put together! 
And remember, whenever King Desire sends out 
his Knights, Prine Will rides at the head, and 
it is for you to make him stick there! — for you, 
and you alone, can be master of your own will. 
He is the very strongest part of your selves, and 
it is he, more than any other faculty you possess, 
that determines what your real self is, and is yet 
to become.” 

The clock gave its warning. 

But we haven’t had our poem,” said 
Ethel. We can’t let the hour go by without 
that ! ” 

No, indeed!” chimed the others, as Will 
promptly felt for his book and pencil. 

“ Well, then, here is one that I am sure it will 
do you all good to learn. Just a few lines that 
came to me as I was thinking this afternoon how 
best to present the little fairy-tale, so that you 
could get it, clear, and straight, and plain, and 
not have an^^ trouble in the understanding of it. 
To-morrow, you must go forth to battle with the 
great Giants, and begin the building of your- 
selves in real, live earnest; and to-morrow night, 
we will talk about the other members of the 
King’s household, so that you may know just how 
everything comes to pass in this wonderful Castle 


The Kingdom of the Soul 


87 


of Faith in the Kingdom of the Soul. Here is 
the poem: 

“ ‘ I am building a self! ^ shouted King Desire, 

‘ A Self that shall stand for Me! 

I shall build what I choose, spite of flood or Are, — 
I can he what I will to be! 

^ And when I have built up the Self I see 
In my dreams, and theyVe all come true, 
All things will belong to the royal Me, — 

I can do what I will to do! ’ ” 

The clock chimed the hour. 

Won^t it be a perfectly jolly little game of 
^ Let’s Pretend? ’ ” said Hattie to Alice, as the 
cousins said “ Good-night ! ” 


/ 


CHAPTER VIIL 


THE FIRST DAY^S BATTLE. 

A unt Susie noticed that there was not the 
usual eager light in the eyes of her young 
charges as they gathered for the Children’s Hour 
the next evening. 

She had not seen any too much of them during 
the day. She made it a point in her training to 
avoid taking any active part in the actual work- 
ing-out of the fairy-tale in each little life. She 
wanted to teach them, first of all, to rely on them- 
selves, — and on nobody else, — not even herself. 

Besides, she could not be with them very long. 
She had found a mission in this pretty little vil- 
lage, so far from the field of her yearly labor, 
and a mission that was very near to her heart. 
But it must all be accomplished in two little 
months, — ^two little months to be balanced 
against so many years of wrong thinking, and 
wrong training, and she knew that her own 
mental and spiritual powers must be forced to 
the limit of their possibilities; while she also 
88 


The First Day^s Battle 


89 


knew that it was best for the little minds, so 
eager for the seeds that she was just as eager to 
sow, to begin at the very outset to depend upon 
their own inner forces for every battle they 
might have to fight, and the overthrowing of 
every Giant they would certainly have to face. 

She did not seem to notice the look of disap- 
pointment and defeat so plainly stamped upon 
each little face. 

Well, what have you all to tell me to-night, I 
wonder?’’ she asked, cheerfully, as she looked 
expectantly around the little circle. Have we 
met any bad Giants to-day? and have the little 
White Knights been faithful?” 

It’s all gone wrong! ” said Will, without look- 
ing up. 

I can’t make it work at all,” said Alice. 

‘‘ It’s awful hard,” said Olive, but I’m going 
to keep on trying!” 

“Pshaw! I don’t see a bit of use in trying,” 
said Marion. “ I think we might a whole lot 
better give it all up right away! ” 

“ So old Giant Quit has still got his chains on 
our poor Marion boy,” said Aunt Susie, with a 
sympathetic smile. “ Well, he won’t have very 
long, that’s sure! When King Desire once gets 
after him in earnest, and Prince Will is 
thoroughly awake to his business, and gets his 


90 


The First Day’s Battle 


Knights hustling around after him, it will be 
^ Good-bye, Mr. Giant Quit! and Marion won’t 
have any more trouble from him. Won’t it be 
fun, though, to see the old fellow run? ” 

They all tried to laugh, but it was a miserably 
poor attempt. 

But, Auntie Sue, I did shirk my work ter- 
ribly,” said Hattie, “ when I didn’t want to a 
single bit, and kept saying that I wouldn’t, all 
the time! ” 

Why did you then, dear? ” asked Aunt Susie. 

Why I — I — I — I guess I forgot!” 

^^Of course! That was the Giant Thoughtless- 
ness, you see. As I told you, he is king of all the 
Giants, and when you once succeed in really con- 
quering him, the others will be very easy to over- 
throw! ” 

I said I wouldn’t get mad a single time to- 
day, too,” said Frank, dolefully. And then, — 
and then, — tell me. Auntie Sue, why did every 
single person and thing I came across try their 
best to stir up all the cross feelings in me? I 
just couldn’t hold in. I got mad — O lots and lots 
of times, when I didn’t want to, at all!” 

There were too many Black Knights against 
the White ones, dear. It will be easier next 
time!” said Auntie Sue, consolingly. ‘‘I know 
just how it was, for I had to fight that bad Giant 


The First Day’s Battle 


91 


Ill-Temper through ever so many years of my 
life. Once in a while he stares me in the face 
even now, but I soon lay him low!” 

“You, Auntie Sue? Surely, not you!” said 
Frank, brightening considerably at the thought. 
Surely, if Auntie Sue had had this same Giant to 
face, and had so completely floored him, — and 
she, a mere girl, too! — he, a strong, sturdy boy 
could easily master the fellow! 

“Yes, indeed! You mustn’t think because all 
my hardest battles have been fought, that I 
never had any. Auntie Sue has learned all that 
life has taught her along a harder road than she 
would be willing for any of your feet to travel. 
That is why she is so anxious for you to conquer 
all these Giants now, while you are young, and 
your Selves are so much more easily built to the 
pattern you choose than they could be when all 
the bad habits and thought-influences had been 
more firmly set by the years that harden the 
nature. The young mind is pliable and easily 
bent. The older mind is tough and hard, and has 
to be hammered into shape.” 

“ Well, Auntie,” said Ethel, “ I wasn’t going 
to cry a single time no matter how hard I got 
hurt. And then, — and then, — why, I never got 
hurt so many times, nor so badly, in all my life 
it seems to me as I have to-day, and I just 


92 


The First Day’s Battle 


couldn’t help it! ” And the tears gathered in her 
eyes, even as she spoke of it. 

A good Knight to handle that situation, 
Ethel dear, is the brave one, ^ Nev€r-7mnd! ’ and his 
chum, ^ Tw(yn/t-last4<mg ! ^ There’s another that 
used to help me bear a great many things, — he 
has a longer name, but he was a pretty good old 
Knight to me. I called him, ^ J ust-play-it-doesn' t 
hurt! ’ Try any of these Knights next time, Ethel, 
and you’ll get the best of the old Giant, before 
he knows where he’s at,” said Aunt Susie. 

‘^We fellows always say, ^ Forget-it/ Auntie 
Sue,” said Harry. 

He’s a good fellow, too,” said Aunt Susie, 
smiling. The soul-kingdom is just full of all 
sorts of such good Knights, if we do not forget 
to call on them when we need them.” 

I kept ahead of my old Giant Selfishness all 
day,” said Olive, mournfully, till just before 
supper. Mamma gave me a piece of ginger 
bread, — a nice, big piece, — and I was awfully 
hungry. Auntie Sue, — and I saw Oma and Ira 
coming, and — and — and — the old Giant just 
dragged me off behind the shed, before I knew it 
to hide away from them, till I got it all eaten up. 
Of course I was sorry afterward,— somehow, the 
last few bites didn’t taste a bit good, — but what’s 
the good of being sorry afterward? ” 


The First Day^s Battle 


93 


A great deal sometimes, Olive, — if it keeps 
us from letting the big Giant beat us next time,^^ 
said Aunt Susie. 

I was going to be just as clean as — as — as — 
well, as Will, and Henry, and Frank, and the 
rest of ’em,^’ said Harry, with a shame-faced air, 
“ but somebody called me this morning before I 
got around to wash my ears, and I thought it 
wouldn^t matter so much, just for once, if I let 
them go till noon, and then, — well, by noon, I had 
forgotten that I had any ears at all, I guess! 
Anyway, I didn’t wash them!” 

“The Giant Slovenliness is a very bad one, 
Harry dear. Nobody likes dirty boys around 
them at all, you know. We must keep a nice 
clean, neat Temple outside, or our Knights can- 
not keep white no matter how hard they may 
try,” said Aunt Susie, gravely. 

“ I will try. Auntie Sue, — I will do better to- 
morrow,” said he. 

“ Yes, I am sure you will,” she answered, en- 
couragingly. 

“ I was pretty nice to folks to-day. Auntie Sue,” 
said Ira, “ but I did talk back to Alice just a lit- 
tle, when she knocked my big train over.” 

“I tried to mind,” said Alice, “but I didn’t 
every single time. I — I — I didn’t forget — much. 
Auntie Sue, — ^just a little!” 


94 


The First Day^s Battle 


And to-morrow, you won’t at all, then, I am 
sure,” said Aunt Susie. 

“ I think I’ve been pretty good,” said Edna. I 
haven’t been selfish, or rude, or disobedient, or 
cross, or anything like that. I never do any of 
those things the rest do, anyway. I never even 
want to.” 

Aunt Susie looked grave. 

If you do not even want to,” at last she said, 

it is not so much credit to you that you do not 
do them. If you do not have to face the Giant, 
why, how could he do you any harm?” 

“ It was a conceited thing for me to say, wasn’t 
it. Auntie Sue?” the little girl admitted at once. 

I might have known that old Giant Conceit 
would get hold of me sometime before night. But 
I really think I have kept out of his clutches 
more than usual. Auntie Sue.” 

“ I hope so, dear! ” was Aunt Susie’s only reply. 

“ Auntie Sue,” said Henry, who had been think- 
ing very deeply ever since the conversation had 
commenced. “ You say Prince Will is a very good 
fellow, but, don’t you think I have too much of 
him? — a little more than my share? I just can’t 
seem to give up my own way, you know, in any- 
thing.” 

I told you, dear, that he worked just as 
bravely on the side of the Black Knights as he did 


The First Day’s Battle 


95 


of the White ones. I do not think you have a 
single bit too much of a will, — no, indeed, — but 
you have simply let him get out from under your 
thumb. He is not your servant now, you see, but 
you are his. He does just as he likes with you. 
What you must do is to master him completely, 
make him do just as you say, and never give in to 
him an inch, — then, what a forceful man you will 
make. I know men, high up in the world’s work, 
my boy, and honored and respected by all men, 
who would give much for such a Prince Will as 
you already have, — who have worked all their 
lives to train their own, but who lack the natural 
force of yours. But don’t let him get away from 
you, Henry. Learn to govern him wisely and well, 
and I shall have no uneasiness over your future, 
for you can rise to any height in all the world.” 

I guess I must be lazy, like Hattie,” said 
Ralph, as Henry raised his head, with an air of 
resolution that it did his Aunt Susie good to see. 

I had a little job to do to-day, and I said the 
very first thing this morning, that I would do it 
right away. Well, Auntie Sue, I just kept put- 
ting it off, and putting it off, and then, — then, — 
well, it came night after awhile, and I had for- 
gotten all about it, you see, and so, — so, — it isn’t 
done yet! ” 

That is the Giant Procrastination, Ralph 


96 


The First Day^s Battle 


dear! A long name, isn’t it? But he’s such a 
very big, bad, black old fellow, that ! think we 
may be pardoned for calling him such a bad name. 
You can call him Giant Put-it-off, for short, if 
you want to, till we get rid of him! ” 

And at last little Pete looked up, with two big 
tears hanging from his long lashes, and said, 

“ I didn’t want to tell a single lie this whole 
long day. Aunt Susie, — really, I didn’t! But I 
just did tell a — a — a whopper!” 

And the little chin quivered. 

That must have been the work of the Black 
Knights, dear,’^ said Aunt Susie. “ It wasn’t the 
real, dear boy at all. And now, the real Pifer is 
ever so sorry, I can see it in his eyes, where the 
nice, sweet, true boy is looking at Auntie Sue out 
of the windows!” 

And the comforted little fellow crept closer to 
her, and laid his head in her lap with a big sob. 
Surely, it was a very big sorrow to the baby that 
he was. And Aunt Susie’s heart ached for the 
sorrow she felt, but had not yet been able to 
understand. He was, in some way, so different 
from the rest of the children. What was it? 


CHAPTER IX 


THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND. 

T>UT, Auntie Sue,” said Edna, after a brief 
pause, while all hesitated to break in upon 
Aunt Susie’s thoughts, so evidently busy with the 
confession of poor little Pete. ‘‘ Why did we 
fail?” 

“ You did not fail,” replied Aunt Susie, 
quietly. 

“What?” came in unison from the half-dis- 
heartened throng. This was certainly the very 
last thing that they had expected to hear. 

“ Of course you didn’t fail,” repeated Aunt 
Susie. “ How can any of you tell how much 
weaker every single one of those old Giants may 
be, because of the efforts of the force of Knights 
that King Desire sent out to fight against them? ” 

“ But we didn’t — any of us,” — began Olive. 

“ Oh of course you didn’t overthrow them, en- 
tirely. Did you expect to do anything like that 
in one day? — after the years they have put in, 
97 


98 


The Law of Supply and Demand 


getting strong, and winding their big chains 
around you? Bless you, dear, there are still sev- 
eral big, black Giants that I have to meet every 
day of my life, and see how many years I have 
been fighting! 

“ You, Auntie Sue? ” 

“To be sure, — why not I? And do I give up? 
Never! Of course, I have long years ago got the 
best of the same Giants that you are fighting 
now, but there are others in the world, for big 
folks to face, that are just as black and terrify- 
ing. But we have to keep up the fight! Why, 
how many wars would ever be fought to a finish, 
do you think, if all the soldiers laid down their 
guns at the first lost battle, because they didn^t 
entirely conquer the foe? Nonsense! it takes 
a defeat or two to arouse a man^s fighting 
blood!” 

“ But, Auntie Sue,” continued Alice, “ why 
didn^t we win right away, when we wanted to so 
much? ” 

“ King Desire was too weak, dear, and Prince 
Will had been allowed to lie around so long that 
he was stiff and sore and awkward, and didn’t 
like to work. So the Knights, faithful little fel- 
lows as they were, had nobody to lead them prop- 
see, and so they ran uncertainly about, 
here, there, and everywhere, trying hard to do 


The Law of Supply and Demand 


99 


their duty but not really accomplishing very 
much. Then, you wanted something else, too, you 
see, so King Desire had to send some of his 
Knights in one direction, and some in another, 
and that scattered his forces so badly, that the 
Giants, with their Black Knights, were 
altogether too strong for his few men. Be- 
sides, — and here, my dears, is a very strong point 
for you to consider, — are you sure that you really 
believed with all your might that they would 
win? 

Believe?’^ asked Edna. 

Of course! Did you have the right kind of 
faith in your Knights when you sent them out? 
Did you say to them, ^ Go out and kill the old 
Giant! ’ and then, feel sure in your own mind that 
they would win? — or did you say, ‘Go out, and 
beat that Giant, if you can! ’ and then spend the 
time wondering if they could, and doubting and 
fearing as to the outcome? Your Knights must 
always be armed with faith, — faith that is abso- 
lutely surej — or the poor fellows are soldiers 
trying to fight without any weapons. You know 
the Golden Text you have often had at Sunday 
School ‘ According to your faith, be it unto you! ’ 
So it is just according to how much faith you 
place in your Knights that they are able to bring 
you success. Even King Desire, all-powerful as 


100 


The Law of Supply and Demand 


he is, lives always in his Castle of Faith, and 
sends out his orders from there, or he would be 
robbed of much of his strength.’^ 

“ But how can we have faith, when we haven’t^ 
Auntie Sue? asked Olive, and they all laughed 
at her way of putting it, but still listened in- 
tently for the answer. 

How can you help it? ” Aunt Susie returned. 

Do I not tell you that King Desire can not fail, 
when you give him strength enough? It all rests 
with you. You, and you alone, decide how many 
Knights shall be sent on every errand.’^ 

“ Tell us how. Auntie Sue,’^ said Ethel. “ I 
must be dreadfully dull and stupid, but still, I 
just can^t quite understand.’^ 

Well, dear, it must be that Auntie Sue has 
not yet found the right words to make it quite 
plain. It is all so clear to my own mind, that I 
am afraid I must forget, now and then, just how 
new it all is to you!” 

“ Why, you tell it just beautifully. Auntie 
Sue,” said Hattie, who would not have her 
adored Aunt Susie criticized, ever so little, even 
by herself. 

‘‘ Of course you do. Auntie Sue,” said Will, 
with a reproving glance at Ethel, who imme- 
diately sank back into her chair, and closed her 


The Law of Supply and Demand 


101 


lips up tight. It is simply that we are all very 
slow to learn.’’ 

“Well, I’ll just keep adding a little here and 
there,” said Aunt Susie, “ until you do learn. 
You see, my dears, this Kingdom of the Soul, 
like all other kingdoms, has many laws. One 
of the greatest of its laws is the Law of Supply 
and Demand. By means of this great universal 
Law, there is no want in all the big world of 
human needs that has not somewhere the neces- 
sary thing to fill it. When you express that 
want, you, whether you know it or not, send the 
Knights out to get it. And if your Prince Will is 
strong enough, — that is, you understand, if you 
want it hard enough, and are really determined 
to get it, — you draw it straight to you by the 
power of these magical Knights. It is yours, if 
you want it. The mere fact that you do want it 
proves that it exists somewhere for you, — ^just 
for you, — and wants you just as you want it. Be- 
cause the supply belongs to the demand, and the 
attraction is like the drawing power between the 
magnet and the needle. If there were no de- 
mand, there would be no supply, of course. 
Equally of course, if there were no supply, there 
would be no demand. The existence of each 
proves the existence of the other. So, as soon as 
you want something, you know, because you want 


102 The Law of Supply and Demand 


it, that it is waiting for you somewhere. I won- 
der if you understand that, children? Have I 
made it any plainer? 

O yes. Auntie,’’ said Ethel, I am sure you 
have. If I want to be brave, it shows that my 
bravery is just somewhere else, waiting for me 
to call it to me.” 

That’s very nicely put, Ethel, and I see you 
do understand. And it has to come to you, too. 
Why? Because that want — that demand, for it 
is a demand,, — when it is once sent out into space 
is a force that draws the supply, — it is so strong 
that all Nature falls in line to assist and bring 
to you the thing you want. Why, just as soon 
as the wish is out, the gift you ask for starts in 
your direction. It may be hindered on the way, 
and delayed by the interference of other Knights, 
but it will surely make its way through every- 
thing, if you keep believing in your Knights, and 
fill them with your faith. If you do not stick to 
it, but call back your Knights before they have 
brought it all the way to you, they stop acting at 
once, and get busy at the next errand you send 
them on. Otherwise, if you keep believing in 
them, and watching for them, and really, truly 
expecting them, they have to come. For it is a 
law, and they never break a law! ” 

“ But, Auntie Sue,” began Marion, doubtfully. 


The Law of Supply and Demand 


103 


“ Do you think we are really big enough to be 
really,, truly good?” 

Big enough? O my dear boy! Look at our 
little Ira, and Pifer here, — aren’t they good?” 

But I mean, — to bring all those things to 
come true?” 

Of course, you are big enough. Look at the 
little twigs that are sometime to be trees. Isn’t 
it easier to make them grow straight and fine, 
than it is when the trunk gets harder to bend, 
and the limbs shoot out, maybe all twisted and 
knotted, in some awkward, ugly shape? The 
idea! You are quite big enough, — every one of 
you, — to bring anything on earth to pass, if you 
can only once fully realize it. No matter how im- 
possible may seem the great thing you want to 
be, or to do, if you are big enough to imagine it, 
to dream of it, — to picture it in your mind, — you 
are plenty big enough to realize it. The White 
Knights that you yourself are capable of creat- 
ing and sending out by the force of King Desire 
and Prince Will, are plenty strong enough to 
draw anything to you. If you can create the 
Knights, you can grasp their work. If you can 
see it in your mind, you can build it in your life! ” 

I think I am beginning to see a little more 
how it is. Auntie Sue,” said Edna. But I am 
afraid — — ” 


104 


The Law of Supply and Demand 


Afraid? That is just what you must not be! 
There are two foreign kings, one of whom is 
called ‘ Fear,’ and the other one ^ Doubt,’ who 
are the very worst enemies of King Desire that 
any king could possibly have. Whenever they 
get inside his kingdom, they raise all kinds of 
trouble. Why, they incite the Black Knights to 
treason, and make even Prince Will tremble and 
seem weak to himself, even taking from the 
White Knights some of their weapons of faith 
and trust! It is your business to keep them out. 
Don’t ever, ever open the gates of your soul- 
kingdom to either of them, — not for a minute, — 
for the fairy-tale must, and will come true! ” 

But how can we malce ourselves believe, 
Auntie?” asked Henry. 

“ You cannot help believing when you hnov^ it 
will come true, Henry dear. You have not really 
proved it yet, and so you do not feel sure, but 
your very first victory will convince you, and 
after that, why, it would be the rankest treason 
against the faithful old king for you to let old 
Fear or Doubt have a peep in. I am sure, when 
they once see things begin to come true, that 
none of my wise boys and girls will ever be 
^ afraid/ or ‘ doubt ’ or even ‘ wonder ’ again. 
Let me give you an every-day illustration, that 
may help you to find it easier to ‘ believe ’ in the 


The Law of Supply and Demand 105 


coming true of the fairy-tale: — When you go to 
the telephone, and ring, you know that Central 
will answer, don^t you? She has to. It is her 
business. Well, that is just the way with what- 
ever else you desire and demand of life. You are 
just as much a part of the Infinite God, as that 
little telephone over there is a part of the great 
united system, that connects you with all your 
neighbors, and with the whole town, and country 
around you. When you make the connection, the 
response has to come. Your taking down the 
receiver, of course, is faith. If you don’t take it 
down, the response cannot possibly get to your 
ear, though Central will be trying her best to 
answer your ring all the time, but you won’t re- 
ceive it. You say, — by your actions, at least, — I 
don’t think Central heard me! ’ — ^ I don’t believe 
she will answer! ’ — ^ I wonder if I really did make 
any connection just by turning that crank! ’ — and 
you don’t listen, — you don’t open your ears to 
receive the reply. It may sometimes be slow in 
reaching you, for the line may be busy, or even 
crossed sometimes, or your own instrument may 
be out of order, through improper thinking, but 
you must grasp the idea that the moment you 
ring Central, and call for your number, the vibra- 
tions from all over the universe start your way 
to bring you what you ask. You must hnow that 


106 


The Law of Supply and Demand 


they will, just as surely as you know that Central 
will respond, for, take my word for it, my dears, 
nobody in all the universe but your own self can 
break the connection, or put the line out of 
order.” 

I see^ Auntie Sue, — I see ! cried Frank, 
eagerly. Faith is the telephone wire that con- 
nects us with God when we pray!” 

That is just the idea, Frank. I am so glad 
you see what I am trying to explain. Now, just 
a word more about the household of King Desire. 
Like all other kings, he has a Prime Minister, 
who directs the affairs of his kingdom for him. 
Big people call this prime minister the Conscious 
Mind, the Objective Mind, or the Positive Mind, — 
whichever they happen to prefer, but we wdll call 
him simply the Prime Minister^ or the Manager.” 

The Boss!” suggested Will. 

“ Yes, ‘ the Boss ’ if you prefer, for that is just 
about what he really is. It is that part of the 
mind that we think with, — ^the part that we our- 
selves direct when we think, — the part with 
which we can deliberaely send the Knights 
wherever we choose. The Prime Minister, of 
course, does whatever King Desire orders, be- 
cause_, you know, we always think what our inner 
self desires to think. This Prime Minister, too, 
directs the workings of the most important ser- 


The Law of Supply and Demand 


107 


vant in all the kingdom, the Steward of the Soul. 
This servant is called by the grown-ups the Sub- 
conscious Mind, the Subjective Mind, or the Nega- 
tive mind, — but we will get along better, I think, 
if we call him simply the Steward.” 

“But, Auntie Sue, just what is he?” asked 
Will. 

“ He is the part of the mind over which, in our 
waking hours, we have no sort of control what- 
ever, and yet, everything that we do or say in- 
fluences him, and he mechanically carries out 
whatever we impress upon him, whether of good 
or bad. If we always think we are bad, for in- 
stance, he accepts the idea, and makes us act 
bad; but if we think we are good, he has only 
good impulses to pass on to the Knights that di- 
rect our actions. His work is all depending upon 
the Mental Attitude that we hold, or the mind- 
picture, of ourselves and our surroundings, that 
we carry about with us. It is our personal point 
of view, or our real inner belief, that impresses 
him. Now, the Prime Minister directs this 
Steward, — tells him what to do in all the actions 
of the body, even every little inside part that we 
know nothing about ourselves, and the Steward 
carries out the orders. Sometimes, he has to be 
told over and over again, for he has no reasoning 
powers at all, and cannot do a thing of himself, 


108 


The Law of Supply and Demand 


but he is a very faithful and obedient servant, 
and when it is once thoroughly impressed upon 
him, he never fails to do his duty.” 

And are these the last two of the king’s fam- 
ily, Auntie Sue? ” asked Oma. Are there any 
more of them? ” 

There are two little Pages, Oma — big folks 
call them ^ Affirmations,’ but we will call them 
simply words. One of them is named ^ I-Can,’ 
and the other is named ^ I-Will.’ Their work is 
to keep the gates tightly closed against the bad 
kings. Fear and Doubt, and to wave the flags to 
encourage the White Knights when out on their 
many, many duties. Fear and Doubt are both 
very much afraid of these little fellows, and 
usually run as soon as they see them coming.” 

The clock had struck, but nobody but Aunt 
Susie had heard it. She pointed to it with a 
smile. It was already fifteen minutes past the 
hour. 

I have two rhymes for you to-night,” she said, 
‘^and I guess, if Will writes rapidly, he can jot 
them both down. The first is on the great law 
I have tried to explain to you, and here it is: 

There is no demand in life, you know, 

But brings with it its own supply; 

Put forth your claim, then, as you go, 


The Law of Supply and Demand 109 


And catch the swift and sure reply. 

No matter what your hopes and aims, 

Send forth your call, so strong and clear. 
That Nature must ad,mit your claims. 

And bring the ripe fruit swiftly near.’^ 

Got that!” said Will, at last, ^‘Now for the 
other. Auntie Sue!” 

“ It is only these four lines, to help you to see 
how to put the little Pages to good use: 

I will conquer every battle. 

Only good my days shall fill, — 

Good thoughts shall create good habits, 

For I can win, and I wilir^ 


CHAPTER X 


THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

ifcXAT'HY is it, Auntie, asked Henry, the next 
evening, as they seated themselves in 
their places for the Children’s Hour, that how- 
ever much I may want to do a thing, 

“ Or think you do! ” put in Aunt Susie, with a 
smile. 

Well, yes, — or think I do! ” he admitted, “ but 
isn’t that the same thing. Auntie Sue? 

“Not quite, my boy! It is very possible for 
you to over-estimate the strength of King De- 
sire, and want things to happen in too many 
different directions, as I told you before, for his 
forces to be strongly enough centred upon any 
one point, to bring what you want to pass. You 
know, when you want to learn anything, you sim- 
ply must concentrate all your thoughts upon it. 
You cannot learn one thing, while your mind is 
constantly wandering here and there, over every- 
thing and anything else but the thing you are 
trying to learn. You all need to learn the great 
lesson of Concentration, — bringing all your 

no 


The Law of Suggestion 


111 


thoughts to a certain point! — and holding them 
there till their work is done!” 

“Well^ anyway, when I make up my mind to 
do a thing, and, really. Auntie, with all my might, 

intend to do it, ” 

“Yes, dear, — I know!” 

“ Why is somebody sure to say something to 
throw me off the track?” 

“What do they say, Henry?” 

“ O such things as ^ I wouldn’t do that fool 
thing, if I were you!’ or ‘Goodness! you could 
never do that, no matter how hard you tried! ^ or 
else they just laugh, and make fun, and say noth- 
ing! But, anyway, they manage to make me stop 
wanting to do it any more! ” 

“ It happens just that way with me, too. 
Auntie Sue,” said Hattie. 

“ And me! ” 

“ And me! ” 

“ And me! ” 

“ Sometimes, I am ‘ thrown off the track,’ as 
Henry says,” said Will, “ by just simply over- 
hearing somebody, somewhere, talking about 
somebody else, and not meaning me at all. But 
I get their ideas, and knowing what I was think- 
ing, why, of course, I change my mind. ‘ The 
cap fits,’ I suppose, — or I think it does, and so I 
‘put it on.’ Why is it, Auntie Sue?” 


112 


The Law of Suggestion 


Why, it is simply because your mind had not 
been as thoroughly made up as you thought it 
had. You were not sure what you wanted. King 
Desire had given his orders in a half-hearted way. 
And so, another of the great laws of the soul- 
kingdom came into operation.” 

“ What law, Auntie? ” 

The Law of Suggestion! When people speak 
to us, they send their Knights to work in our 
kingdoms, — to influence our Steward, — and so, 
perhaps, lead him to direct our Knights to do the 
bidding of their king, instead of our own! They 
cannot do this if our Prince Will is strong enough 
to resist them, but, alas! there are so many times 
when he is not! They cannot do it, either, if our 
Prime Minister is on guard as he always ought 
to be, for they can never make any impression 
upon our Steward, — no, they cannot even get to 
him, — when the Prime Minister is doing his 
duty, — remaining positive and rigid at his post! 
But sometimes, he gets careless, or relaxes, and 
lies dowm to rest, and isn’t attending to business 
as he ought to be, and then, other people’s 
Knights get in. When the Prime Miaister is 
asleep, or at rest, any one can influence the Stew- 
ard, for he simply has to be directed, and he 
doesn’t care a bit where his orders come from. 
It is simply his business to do as he is told, who- 


The Law of Suggestion 


113 


ever may do the telling. And that is how people 
so often influence us to do things we would never 
in all the world think of doing ourselves. They 
may not even say the words^ at all, but by so 
constantly sending out the thoughts along that 
line, they come into vibration with ours, — by 
that, I mean that they get into the atmosphere 
where we live, — and so reach our kingdom, and 
in due time, succeed in carrying their messages 
to our Steward, and getting him to accept them. 
Then the mischief is done!” 

“But how can they get to us. Auntie?’^ asked 
Olive. 

“ There are unseen lines of communication^ 
dear, between all our soul-kingdoms, — lines over 
which the Knights travel from one person to an- 
other. If it were not so, I could not talk to you 
to make you understand, nor you to me! When 
I want to talk to you. King Desire sends a Knight 
with my message, and he immediately carries it 
over these little unseen lines to your Prime Min- 
ister. Your Prime Minister receives it, and then 
passes it on to your Steward, who puts it on file. 
That is how you remember. If he did not hand 
it over to the Steward^ or if the Steward ne- 
glected to make a record of it, you would imme- 
diately forget all about it.’^ 

“ It is better than the telegraph or telephone, 
isn^t it, Auntie Sue?’^ asked Frank, 


114 


The Law of Suggestion 


^^Yes, and the time will come when we will 
communicate with one another in this way over 
many miles without a single word being spoken. 
We do it a great deal now. But when we learn 
to send out our Knights to one point in stronger 
forces than we do now, with a strong, vigorous, 
unyielding, demanding Prince Will at the head, 
we can do anything with our thoughts that we 
may determine upon.’’ 

What is it called. Aunt Susie? ” asked Will. 

Scientists call it Telepathy, or Thought- 
Transference. We can call it simply mental 
telegraphy, if you like, for that is really exactly 
,what it is.” 

But, Auntie Sue, do we really do it now?^^ 
asked Hattie. 

“Very much, dear, — even more than we our- 
selves realize, or even notice! Do not you your- 
self often find yourself thinking of some partic- 
ular friend with no reason at all for doing so, 
except that the thought keeps coming back again 
and again? You say, ‘ I just can’t keep Maud out 
of my mind to-day, for some reason!’ but you 
never stop to reason it out, and get down to the 
^ why ’ in the matter. The real reason is, that 
Maud is thinking strongly of you. She is sending 
her Knights across the miles to you with some 
message, and they are hammering away at the 


The Law of Suggestion 


115 


gates of your soul-kingdom^ trying to get an en- 
trance to your Prime Minister. He hears them 
in the distance, and thinks of Maud, but he 
doesn^t get the rest of the message, and know 
what Maud would like to say to you, because he 
is too busy with other things to stop and open 
the gate, and so, ^ be still, and know.’ ” 

“ But is there any way for us to get the mes- 
sage, Auntie Sue?” asked Ethel. 

“ I am sure, Ethel, that if, when you find the 
thought of some friend bothering you, — coming 
again and again into your mind without your 
calling it there, — you would just sit down or lie 
down, and keep real still, — relax every nerve and 
muscle, — stop all thinking, — really forget every- 
thing else but this friend, and let the knowledge 
of her personal infiuence fill your being, — you 
would actually, after a few trials, be able to let 
her Knights come to you, and give you her mes- 
sage. Just call up her picture, you know, see her 
in your mind’s eye right in front of you, just as 
she always looks, — make her presence very real 
to you, — and listen to what thought-message 
comes to you. I know it can be done, for I have 
a number of friends who send me their messages, 
and who receive mine. When I go back to my 
work this fall, you must all practice it with me! 

^^Good! Good!” came the chorus. 


116 


The Law of Suggestion 


Then we shall not really lose you again after 
all, Auntie Sue,” said Oma. 

Indeed, you will not. I shall often be with 
you in spirit, — with my full force of Knights, — 
whether I am able to get my messages through 
to your Prime Ministers, or not!” 

But, Auntie Sue,” said Henry, with an uneasy 
glance at'the clock, we were talking of the way 
in which other people influence us!” 

“ Yes, and iPs an important thing to be con- 
sidered, too, — how strong an influence just one 
person may wield, over even a good-sized crowd. 
Have you never noticed how quickly one cross, 
ill-tempered person may make a whole party feel 
mean and out-of-sorts?” 

^^Yes, indeed!” said they all, looking at one 
another, conscious of many such times in the 
history of their own little group. 

“ And, on the other hand, one who is cheerful 
and determined to smile, and be happy, will soon 
have the whole crowd smiling and merry. We 
are all influenced by other people’s moods and 
thoughts more than we may really know! ” said 
Aunt Susie. 

“ But, Auntie Sue, is there no way we can help 
letting them do it? ” asked Henry, anxiously. 

“ To be sure there is. We do not need to let 
their Knights into our kingdom at all, unless we 


The Law of Suggestion 


117 


choose. And if they do get in, we do not need to 
accept a single one of their messages. We should 
rally all of our own Knights to the support of 
King Desire, and just ^ talk back ’ to them. If 
they say, ‘You are foolish!^ come back at them 
with a strong, firm, ‘I am right!’ — and he sure 
to mean it when you say it, and believe it yourself. 
If they say, ‘ You can’t! ’ just laugh right in their 
faces with a defiant ‘I can!’ and then go right 
straight ahead, and prove it! No matter what 
anybody in the world may say or think, it can 
have no effect, if you keep your own Knights 
busy, counter-acting their suggestions by your 
own opposite affirmations, or spoken words. 
Surely, you know your own self better than any 
one else does. Surely, you ought to know what 
you want, better than they possibly can. And 
surely you know that your own Knights have 
double the force in your own kingdom that 
anybody else’s could possibly have! And be- 
sides, if you keep busy directing King Desire, 
atnd ordering your Knights, you will not even 
have time to notice that anybody else’s Knights 
are even trying to get in. When the Prime Min- 
ister is busy enough with the affairs of the soul- 
kingdom, he never can hear any outside noises at 
the gates ! ” 

“ But isn’t it best to take advice sometimes 
from those who know more than we do?” 


118 


The Law of Suggestion 


Most certainly, — when your own Self recog- 
nizes its value, and accepts its truth. We were 
not speaking of that, were we? Nevertheless, 
there is really nobody but your own papas and 
mammas who have any authority over your life, 
and while you owe them the strictest obedience, 
you are not bound to accept the counsel of any- 
body else living. What I meant to impress most 
deeply upon your minds was this: For instance. 
Mamma sends you to the post-office to mail a 
letter. You want to do that errand at once^ just 
as Mamma said. You are thinking of nothing 
else. You meet Mary. Mary says, ‘ Let us go 
over to the bridge and watch the train pass by! ’ 

^ O no,’ you say, ^ I have to mail this letter for 
Mamma! ’ Mary says, ^ Pshaw! there’s lots of 
time for the old letter! Come to the bridge first! ’ 
If your Knights are weaker than hers, and Prince 
Will happens to be lazying around, you will go 
with her to the bridge, and most likely forget all 
about the letter, which may really have been 
very important, until, perhaps, it is too late alto- 
gether for the out-going mail. Then, of course, 
your real Self is sorry, but being sorry doesn’t 
put things right again, when the Black Knights • 
have had their way.” 

I see,” said Hattie. 

Alice hung her head, for something very sim- 


The Law of Suggestion 


119 


liar to that ver}^ thing had happened with her 
just a day or two before. 

And again, does not the fear of what certain 
friends may say or think of us/^ went on Aunt 
Susie, often keep us from letting our real Self 
express its own tastes? Do we not dress as 
others do, walk as others do, go when and where 
others go, read what they read, and all that, 
letting their Knights direct our lives, instead of 
our own? ’’ 

.The children looked significantly at Hattie, for 
it was now her turn to hang her head^ and look 
self-conscious. What people think,” was a 
word very often on her lips, and “ Everybody's 
doing it,” a supreme law in her life. 

‘‘How can we keep from it?” asked Ethel, in 
dismay. 

“ Easily, my dear little girl. We will just go 
into our Castle of Faith, and with our strong 
Prince Will, and the obedient White Knights, 
we will build all around the Castle so strong and 
high a wall of divine love — God^s love, — protect- 
ing love, — that nothing can reach us, — not even 
a single bad thought or word or wish, or a wrong 
habit or action or opinion of anybody else in all 
the world. Maybe, I can put the idea into some 
sort of a rhyme, — for it is certainly rhyme-time 
again, — 


120 


The Law of Suggestion 


I will build myself a wall, 

Strong and thick and broad and tall; 
I will build it firmly of 
God’s divine, protecting love! 

Safely sheltered by this wall, 

I shall hear no evil call. 

For so safe my soul shall be, 

No wrong thoughts can get to me!’^ 



CHAPTER XI 


THE LAW OF ATTRACTION 

^1^ HE children had already begun to realize 
^ some very sweet results of their little 
Game of Let’s Pretend,” — quite sufficient to 
prove to them that it would surely work,” 
when properly understood and played, but when 
they came in for their “ Children’s Hour ” the 
next evening, it was quite evident that the at- 
mosphere had been somewhat disturbed by 
clouds or threatenings of storm. 

“ I couldn’t understand at first,’^ said Frank, 
“ why everything I tried to do persisted in going 
straight the other way. But when I remembered 
that it was Friday, and then looked up at the 
calender, and discovered that it was also the 
thirteenth of the month, why I knew right away 
that I was foolish to try to do anything worth 
doing. Nobody could ever do anything at all on 
Friday the Thirteenth!” he concluded gloomily. 
Aunt Susie laughed outright. 

‘^That’s just because you think so!” she said. 

121 


122 


The Law of Attraction 


0 but Auntie Sue,”— began several voices in 
protest. 

But that is really and truly the only reason 
in all the world, my dears,” she said. Not a 
single thing has gone ‘ wrong side up ’ with me. 
I’ve had an exceptionally happy day. You have 
always heard that Friday and the number thir- 
teen were both unlucky, and you have thought it 
so much, and believed it so thoroughly, that — 
well, ^ according to your faith,’ it has been unto 
you, you see. Your Prime Minister, too, has so 
thoroughly impressed this belief upon the 
Steward, that the faithful little servant doesn’t 
make much of an effort to bring anything about, 
and Prince Will goes to sleep. This is a very 
strong proof of the power of the Knights, for it is 
only another result of years of wrong think- 
ing.” 

But, Auntie Sue, don’t you believe in any 
signs at all? ” asked Edna, staring at her aunt in 
undisguised wonder. An aunt who did not be- 
lieve in signs! — it was something unheard-of! 

1 believe that all signs are true to those who 
believe in them, but it is simply because their 
own thoughts and their own faith bring them to 
pass, and make them true. I do not believe that 
a single sign is at all true to those who do not 
believe in them. I believe, too, that we can rise 


The Law of Attraction 


123 


above them, — be stronger than they, — and not let 
them influence our thought in the least partic- 
ular, even if we have always believed in them 
before. It is so weak, don^t you think, to be in- 
fluenced by a whim that there is really nothing 
to?” 

But I can^t understand,” protested Frank, 
why it always turns out that way, if there is 
really nothing to it.” 

It is simply, as in so many other things, the 
Mental Attitude you hold, dear, — the point of 
view you take, — ^the way you, yourself, look at 
it! Have you never noticed yet how you always 
get in this world just what you expect to get? — 
how you see everywhere just what you are look- 
ing for?” 

Why, no,” said Frank, “ I do not know that 
I have! ” 

“Well, you just try it and see. If you are 
looking for faults in your friends and playmates, 
and expecting them to do naughty things, you 
won^t see anything but their faults, and every- 
thing they may say or do will seem naughty to 
you. On the other hand, if you just look for the 
good things, about those very same friends, and 
expect them to do nice, pleasant things, you are 
certain only to notice how good they are, and 
what nice things they do!” 


124 


The Law of Attraction 


Well, that’s something worth trying, any- 
way,” said Olive. 

Isn’t it?” said Aunt Susie. “I wonder if 
you never heard about that wise queen who sent 
out two of her servants over the very same road, 
telling one of them to bring her every weed he 
could find, and the other one to bring her every 
fiower! One came back, loaded down with weeds, 
and grumbling over the number. ^ I never saw 
so many weeds,’ he said. ‘ And I didn’t see a sin- 
gle flower anywhere! ’ The other was loaded with 
flowers. ^ There were flowers, flowers every- 
where! ’ he said. ^ I don’t believe that there was 
a single, solitary weed along the whole road. 
And it is always so, my dears, wherever we go. 
We see just what we look for. We get just .what 
we expect.” 

Auntie Sue,” said Harry, after a pause, I’ve 
noticed lately, among the boys down town, that 
several different times they have begun to talk 
to me about the very thing that was in my mind. 
Wasn’t it strange?” 

Strange? Why, no, — not in the least! It was 
very natural, my dear boy.” 

Harry opened his eyes wide. 

'^Natural? how’s that?” he asked. ^^Was it 
because my Knights were poking their noses into 
the other fellows’ kingdoms?” 


The Law of Attraction 


125 


‘‘No, — not that! But it was a' proof of the 
strong influence of your Knights. This brings 
us to another great law of the kingdom, — the 
Law" of Affinity, — or, the Law of Attraction and 
Kepulsion. You have all heard the saying, ‘ like 
attracts like,^ but you have probably never once 
stopped to think what a great truth it really is, — 
even in the thought-realm.” 

“ Does it mean the same as ‘ Birds of a feather 
flock together,’ Auntie Sue, asked Edna. 

“ Yes, just the same. When you send out your 
thoughts, — or, in other words, when King Desire 
sends out the Knights, into the great spaces of 
the universe, on any mission whatever, — they 
come into contact with all other Knights who are 
sent out on the same kind of missions, — they vi- 
brate in harmony, — or beat in the same meas- 
ure, — or play in tune, — I hardly know how best to 
express it, — with the Knights of their own kind, — 
and they all work together. When you are think- 
ing along a certain line, everybody’s thought 
along that particular line helps you, because you 
are so open to receive it from every source. You 
draw it to you, because your Knights bring these 
other Knights to help them. That is why, too, 
you are instantly attracted to some people, and 
repelled by others, — ^you are drawn by this great 
law toward the people w"ho are thinking the same 


126 


The Law of Attraction 


kind of thoughts that you are, and are pulled 
back from those who are thinking an opposing 
kind of thought. Why, everywhere I go, the peo- 
ple w^ho are interested in the same things that 
appeal to me, are being constantly drawn into 
contact with me. I meet them everywhere. They 
just naturally gravitate toward me, attracted by 
my faithful little Knights, working along the 
same line as theirs.’^ 

^^The Knights are regular magicians, aren’t 
they, Auntie?” asked Frank, who was a great 
reader of all kinds of fairy tales. 

Yes, you might put it that way,” she an- 
swered, although magic is supposed to be some- 
thing working against the laws of nature and de- 
feating them, while all these wonderful laws are 
really the laws of nature themselves, which are 
just beginning to be more fully understood, and 
put into voluntary operation.” 

Then, Auntie Sue, do you not meet the people 
who are not interested in the things you like? ” 
asked Olive. 

‘‘ Not often, — never intimately. You see, the 
Knights who are not in harmony with my cer- 
tain line, who are sent out on altogether different 
missions than my Knights are busy about, will 
not mingle with my Knights at all, because there 
will be no sympathy between them, whatever. If 


The Law of Attraction 


127 


they are directly opposite, they are repelled, — 
driven so far back by my little Knights that they 
cannot get into my atmosphere at all. As you 
grow older, you will see more and more of this 
in your life. The people near you in the street- 
car will give you, unconsciously, some bit of in- 
formation you were seeking, — some one will come 
to your table at the restaurant and speak, unin- 
vited, of just what you want to know, — you will 
see a line in some torn and discarded bit of old 
newspaper on the street that will answer some 
question in your mind, or tell you something you 
need to know for some purpose or other, — some 
one may even be sent across the whole, wide con- 
tinent to bring you a book, a poem, or a bit of 
music that you need. They won’t know why they 
come, — still less why they bring anything with 
them, or why they meet you, — but when King 
Desire once gets earnestly to work, his Knights 
have to bring all things to pass, as the whole uni- 
versal force is pressed into service, and drawn 
into the current of action!” 

“ What queer things do happen in the world ! ” 
said Oma. 

No, dear. That is a mistake. Nothing ever 
happens. Everything that takes place, — every 
simple little insignificant thing, — is the working 
out of some great law that we cannot see, and 


128 


The Law of Attraction 


may not understand. No matter how trifling you 
may think it is, everything is the effect of some 
cause somewhere. 

Nothing is meaningless, — here and there 

Are fragments of life that seem incom- 
plete, — 

A letter, — a whisper upon the air, 

A song, — a laugh, — or a friend we meet, 

.We say, ^ A strange thing happened to-day! ^ 
Then turn aside, and at once forget: 

But we little know what we careless say. 

For nothing has ever ‘ happened ^ yet.” 

^^That is lovely. Auntie, — may we learn it?” 
asked Olive, who had a very big appetite for all 
kinds of rhymes, but especially Auntie Sue’s. 

Of course. But, as I was saying, when you 
see how the whole universe takes a hand in doing 
your bidding, don’t you begin to realize what im- 
portant persons you are, — each and every one of 
you? ” 

“ And to think we never knew it before! ” said 
Edna. 

Look out for the Giant Conceit, Edna,” 
taunted Will, — I don’t think you need anybody 
to tell you anything about your own impor- 
tance!” 

‘^And how about the Giant Cruelty, Will?” 


The Law of Attraction 


129 


reminded Aunt Susie, gently, with a sad look in 
her eyes. 

^^0 1 forgot again,’’ said Will, humbly. “ Do 
forgive me, Edna, — please do! ” he added hastily. 

“Bravo!” cried Aunt Susie, clapping her 
hands, in real delight. “ One victory for the 
White Knights against old Giant Cruelty, even 
on Friday the Thirteenth ” 

And they all applauded in sympathy with her 
approval. 

“ But after all we have said about the at- 
traction of the White Knights for their kind, 
we must not let ourselves forget that the Black 
Knights, too, attract to them their own kind, just 
as strongly as the White ones, and bring all 
kinds of trouble and misfortune back to the peo- 
ple who send them out! ” 

“ Nasty old Black Knights,” said Ira. “ I hate 
’em! ” 

“Well, what should we do with the Black 
Knights, anyway? ” asked Aunt Susie, playfully, 
looking from one to the other. “ What shall we 
do with the wicked, wicked fellows?” 

“ Burn them up,” said Ralph, promptly. 

“ Shoot ’em down!” said Ira, fiercely. 

“Banish them!” said Marion, with an air of 
great wisdom. “ Shut them out of the kingdom, 
entirely! ” 


130 


The Law of Attraction 


Pm afraid they^d get back in/^ said little Oma, 
ruefully. “ They^d crawl under the gate, I 
’spect!” 

“ Just lePs make ’em all get good,” said little 
Pete, “ and turn ’emselves into White Knights! ” 
“ ril tell you what I think,” said Will, fiercely. 
I’d shut them all up in a dark dungeon, in the 
depths of the Castle, and — and — ^just starve every 
sinner of them to death ! ” 

“ That does seem to be the best plan of all,” 
said Aunt Susie, thoughtfully, for if they get 
nothing to feed on, they will soon die out of the 
kingdom altogether, and — well, we can strangle 
the new ones as soon as they are born! ” 

“O Auntie Sue! Auntie Sue! what a cruel 
woman you are! ” said Olive, and they all laughed 
merrily at the idea her words called up. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL 

66 A FTER all^ Will, your warning to ^ Look 
out for the Giant Conceit!’ was not al- 
together out of time and place, when ap- 
plied to all of us, if the Black Knights did direct 
the spirit of them, and make them cruel and 
harsh,” said Aunt Susie, after a pause. ^^We 
must all thoroughly realize that any one person 
in all the world is just as important as any 
other — ^just as necessary to the progress of the 
world, — and the growth of human endeavor! 
Every person is placed on earth in his own par- 
ticular place for a very particular purpose. He 
has a part to play in the great universal scheme 
of things that nobody else in all the world can 
play in his stead. Whether that work may be 
to carry the hod, or to make the laws; to dig 
ditches, or to write books; — it is just as important 
a work as any other, just as fully entitled to re- 
spect and honor as the work of the president, or 
the general, or the preacher in his pulpit. It is 
not what work he does, but how he does it, that 
proves the kind of a man he is! And again, it is 
131 


132 The Importance of the Individual 


all in our Mental Attitude, — our way of looking 
at him^ — the color of the spectacles that we look 
through, as you might say, that makes him look 
as he does to us. When we once grasp this great 
truth, we will see in every human being the hu- 
man soul looking forth from the eyes, craving 
for expression, and seeking it in the form of labor 
it thus dignifies by its touch. We will remember, 
too, that that soul was ‘ breathed into his 
nostrils ’ by the same God from whence came the 
‘ breath of life ^ to us, and then we will know how 
truly lovely and lovable he is! And we cannot, 
then, look down on any one, — no, nor on any work 
we ourseves may have to do, either, however 
disagreeable it might otherwise have been. We 
will simply have no time or place for the Giant 
Conceit! ” 

“ But, Auntie Sue,” asked Hattie, aren’t there 
some things you have to do sometimes, that you 
don’t really like to do?” 

There used to be, Hattie dear,” admitted 
Auntie Sue, ‘‘ before I had fully learned how good 
everything in the world is, and what good it 
brings to me, and does for me! Now, whatever 
I may have to do at any particular minute is, I 
know at once, the very thing I w^ant to do just at 
that time, and in that place, because it is the 
very thing that is necessary for my building. If 


The Importance of the Individual 133 


I do not on the very instant, get what I like, then 
I at once begin to like what I get, and so make 
myself ready for the thing that I do like, When 
the little Thought-Knights of King Desire bring 
it to me! If it wasn’t necessary for the work to 
be done, and just as necessary for me to do it, — 
Tvhy, I would not have been sent to do it at all, 
you see! ” 

“ Oh Auntie Sue,” said Alice, with a sigh. I 
just fairly envy you for being able to feel like 
that about it! I do so wish I was like you! ” 

“ The Giant Envy is a very nasty old fellow,” 
said Aunt Susie, with a smile, and Alice dropped 
her head, as she recognized the unworthiness of 
her feeling. And a very foolish old fellow, too,” 
added Aunt Susie, for you see, what one person 
can attain, another can also attain, if he makes 
the same effort in the same direction. And really, 
dear, have I not just been trying hard to teach 
you that every individual is just as important, 
and just as worthy of all honor, as any other? 
The man who makes the greatest success of his 
life is the man who has succeeded in giving the 
fullest expression to his own Self, — in living the 
life prompted only by his own in-born nature, — 
in obeying the instinct within him that is trying 
so hard to grow, — in really being himself. Don’t 
ever wish to be ^ Auntie Sue,’ nor ^ Mamma,’ nor 


134 The Importance of the Individual 


‘ Hattie,’ nor ^ Olive,’ nor anybody else in all the 
world but just Alice, and let her real Self come 
out into the open, and dare to live its own full, 
beautiful life. Why, I would not like Frank half 
so well as I do, if he tried to be like Will, or 
Ealph, or Marion. He would not be either one 
thing or the other, then, but a badly mixed-up 
mess of thoughts, habits, and half-ideas, trying 
to think the thoughts, and obey the impulses and 
impressions that belong to some one else, — get- 
ting their Knights to do his work, instead of the 
ones lying fast asleep in his own soul-kingdom. 
Pshaw! he wouldn’t be worth a two-cent postage 
stamp, either to the world, to the family, or to 
himself.” 

^‘I’ll never want to be anybody else again,’^ 
said Henry, resolutely. I’ll be myself!” 

“ Good for Henry! ” approved Aunt Susie, “ and 
that shall be the key-note of our poem to-night, 
for I see it is already past time to separate: ” 

I’ll be myself, — my very Self, — 

Whatever people say! 

I’ll think my thoughts, — I’ll live my life. 
Exactly my own way! 

Nobody’s thoughts shall get to me 
To tell me what to do. 

But I myself, shall learn to see, 

My every wish come true!” 


CHAPTER XIII. 


THE LAW OF COMPENSATION. 

^I^HE next day being Saturday, and the chil- 
dren having been busy all day on errands 
here and there, and so coming more or less 
into contact with other children, they had all had 
a fair chance to face the foes of their soul-king- 
doms in open battle, and nearly all of them had 
more than one tale of both victory and defeat to 
pour into Aunt Susie’s ever-willing ears, when 
they had finally finished their evening meal, and 
had gathered around her for the hour that was 
now fully recognized by both households as the 
children’s very own. 

iWilPs face was very red as he listened in moody 
silence for some time to the experiences of the 
other children. 

I’d have got along all right, all day,” at last 
he blurted out, “ if it hadn’t been for that miser- 
able Fred Hastings! But he made me so mad, I 
could — could — could do — do — almost anything to 

him! I just wish that he ” 

O hush. Will, hush, my dear boy! You must 
135 


136 


The Law of Compensation 


not send out to poor Fred Hastings such a curse 
as that terrible wish I saw in your eyes w^ould 
be! Why, child_, the Black Knights would fairly 
swarm around him, and then, when they had suc- 
ceeded in working out all the evil commands of 
your King Desire upon him, they would come 
right straight back to you, didn’t 3^ou know 
that? — and bring all the wicked curse home 
again! Do you not know that ^ All chickens come 
home to roost?’ — that ^ with whatever measure 
ye mete, it shall be measured to you again? ’ Do 
you not know that every single thought and wish 
we send out has to come home again? O never, 
never, never let one of us so far forget ourselves 
as to hate our friend, and thus brand ourselves 
with the curse of Cain, for, think! — ^ He that 
hateth his brother is a murderer/ Do you know 
why, children? Have I not already told you 
enough for you to understand that?” 

“ I suppose the hate-thoughts are so very bad, 
Auntie Sue, that they kill, like bad blows, or 
shots,” said Frank, thoughtfully. 

“Yes, indeed, — O very much indeed! And 
when you say, would like to kill him!’ it is 
just as bad for you as though you really did kill 
him, for in your heart, — in your soul-kingdom, — 
the great thought-realm, that is your real life, — » 
you have already done the deed!” 


The Law of Compensation 


137 


Will hung his head. 

Maybe, the Bad Knights couldn^t get to him, 
Auntie Sue,” at last he said. 

Well, even then,” she said, very gravely, the 
evil remains in you. Even if his castle is too 
closely barred and guarded for those murderous 
Black Knights of yours to force their way into 
his kingdom, and work out their evil designs, 
they will return home again, and wreak all kinds 
of misery and suffering upon you. It is always 
the one who sends out the Black Knights who 
suffers most from them. And that is another 
great law of the soul-kingdom, — and a very, very 
sure and powerful one. It is called the Law of 
Compensation, the Law of Retribution, or, in 
simpler words, the Law of Cause and Effect. It 
simply means, you know, that there is a ‘ because ’ 
for every ^ why ’ all over the world, and that we 
are really accountable for every idle word and 
deed, every thought we think.” 

But, Auntie Sue,” protested the boy, with a 
shamed face, you do not know how mean 
he ” 

No, and I do not want to,” interrupted Aunt 
Susie, quietly. Poor Fred Hastings! I am 
quite sure that he is doing the very best that he 
knows how. If he doesn’t know any better, he is 


138 


The Law of Compensation 


to be pitied, and not blamed, because, you see, he 
alone will have it all to pay for, in some very 
hard way or another, — ^just as my poor Will will 
have to pay for the bad words he said, and the 
bad thoughts he sent out, instead of the loving 
words, and sweet, kind thoughts that would have 
helped poor Fred to see things differently, and 
might, perhaps, have opened his eyes a little to 
the truth about the great Kingdom of the Soul, 
with its unchanging law of kindness, and its stern 
command to ‘ Keep Smiling.’ ” 

“ But, Auntie, how much am I responsible for 
him?” asked Will. Is it true that I am ^ my 
brother’s keeper? ’ ” 

You are not responsible for him at all, my 
boy, so long as you keep yourself out of his at- 
mosphere, — his vibration, — his thought-realm. 
But the minute your Knights commence to mingle 
with his, you commence to be accountable for 
the influence you wield over his. We are our 
^ brother’s keeper,’ only so far as we influence 
him, either by our example, our word, our deed, 
or our thought. You are not accountable for the 
acts of a single one of this group. Will, though I 
know you, as well as they, have somehow, be- 
come accustomed to thinking that you are. Each 
is his own ruler, under the laws set down by 
Mamma and Papa. And each is responsible 


The Law of Compensation 


139 


within his own self, for all that he does, and 
must, in some way, pay for it.” 

Do you really mean. Auntie Sue, that we al- 
ways get just what we give?” asked Olive. 

Certainly I do, Olive. We get what we give, — 
we pay for all we get, and for all we do. Sooner 
or later, everything comes back to us, — be it good 
or evil. The same Book that said, ^ Judge not 
that ye be not judged,’ and ^ Whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap,’ said, also, ^Cast 
thy bread upon the waters, and thou shalt find it, 
after many days.’ O you may be very sure, boys 
and girls, that no good word, or thought, or deed, 
is ever lost, or allowed to go unrewarded; neither 
is any bad word, or thought, or deed harmless, 
nor allowed to go unpunished! As a poet of to- 
day says, 

^ You must lie in the bed 

That your own hands spread.’ 

Do you not see, then, how you yourself are in some 
way to blame for all the evil that comes to you, 
just as you earn, in some way, all the good that 
you receive? If we meet the world with a smile, 
it smiles back at us. If we frown, we meet 
frowns in return. This is something that every- 
body seems to find so hard to understand, and 
yet it is so very simple that I really cannot see 


140 


The Law of Compensation 


why. Life is just a mirror, and always faith- 
fully reflects the face we bring to it; or, as we 
might say, an echo, that throws back at us the 
words and tones we send out. If we could just 
remember this, and see how we hurt ourselves 
more than anybody else by the cross, mean, ill- 
tempered thoughts and words we send out, we 
wouldn^t send so many, would we?” 

“ No,” said Will, emphatically. “ And, Auntie 
Sue!” 

“Yes, dear!” 

“ I am going to see Fred Hastings at Sunday 
School in the morning and ask him to 
forgive me for all I said and thought, the 
very first thing I do. Will that make it 
right. Auntie Sue?” 

“ Do you know just what that will be doing, 
Will?” she asked. 

“No, — ^just tryig to patch it up!” 

“ It will be like calling back the Black Knights 
you have sent out with a curse, and sending out 
the White Knights to carry a blessing instead. 
That will certainly be worth while if it wull only 
be in time to stop the work of the Black Knights 
before they have already done too much mischief 
for the White Knights to undo! It is not an easy 
thing to do, dear. You know Will Carleton 
writes. 


The Law of Compensation 


141 


‘ Boys, flying kites, haul in their white-winged 
birds; 

You can^t do that way when you’re flying words: 

Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall back 
dead. 

But God Himself can’t kill them when they’re 
said.’ ” 


^^Then it won’t do any good at all. Auntie? 
It can’t put things straight? ” asked Will, wist- 
fully. 

“ It will put them as near straight as anything 
ever can now. Will dear. It is the only manly 
thing left to be done, at any rate. This is a case 
where ^ an ounce of prevention ’ is worth tons ^ of 
cure.’ But still the cure will be better for both 
yourself and poor Fred than the rankling sore.” 

“O Auntie Sue!” cried Oma, “wouldn’t it be 
a dear, sweet, lovely old world, to live in, if no- 
body ever got mad, — if everybody was always 
kind and good to everybody else?” 

“ Yes^ sweetheart,” answered Aunt Susie, “ and 
we can make our own particular world just ex- 
actly that kind if we choose. Some day we will 
all have learned this, and then we will send out 
nothing but love, love, love, to bless everybody 
and everything everywhere, and then there will be 
no need of sadness or forgiveness, for there will be 


142 


The Law of Compensation 


just nothing anywhere to cause any aching 
hearts. Love is the one strong force that beau- 
tifies all people^ all places, and all living, breath- 
ing things. And the very most wonderful thing 
about it is that the more of it we give out, the 
more we get to give, for it fiows to us from every 
possible source, as we in turn, breathe it out to 
the world.” 

“O isn’t it sweet?” asked Olive. I’ll never, 
never, never be selfish any more!” 

Of course not/^ said Aunt Susie, smiling at 
the little face, aglow with a new light. And, 
my dears, let us all learn to love every living 
creature, every bird, and bee, and fiower, every 
leaf and bud and blossom, and see how fully and 
quickly even the plants and animals respond.” 

“O Auntie Sue, just hear that clock!” said 
Ira, protestingly. 

Yes, — time has fiown rapidly to-night. I am 
going to give you for your poem to-night some- 
thing that I did not write myself. It is just two 
beautiful stanzas by a very sweet woman, Made- 
line Bridges. It is well known, so you may have 
heard it, and learned it before, but it fits the 
lesson of this evening so much better than any- 
thing I could string together myself, that — well, 
I am sure you cannot hear it too often, and it de- 
serves to be told over and over again. I feel sure 


The Law of Compensation 


, 143 


the learning of the lines will bring home to you 
more forcefully still the great truth of this great 
Law of Compensation. It may seem a cruel law, 
dear children, when we keep ourselves working 
against its decree, but when we once bring our- 
selves into harmony with it, and work imth it, in- 
stead of against it all the time, we will see that it 
is really a very sweet law, indeed, and we will 
learn to love it, because it will teach us how very 
much worth while all our efforts are, — that noth- 
ing can be lost, or thrown away, — that nothing 
can be done, or said, or thought in vain. The 
poem is called ^ Life’s Mirror,’ and it reads : 

^ Give love, and love to your life will flow, 

A strength in your utmost need; 

Have faith, and a score of hearts will show 
Their faith in your word and deed. 

^ Give truth, and your gift will be paid in kind, 
And honor will honor meet; 

And a smile that is sweet will surely find 
A smile that is just as sweet. 

< For life is the mirror of king and slave; 

’Tis just what we are, and do; 

Then give to the world the best you have, 

And the best will come back to you.’ 


CHAPTER XIV, 


THE TEMPLE OF SILENCE 

children had been to Sunday School, and 
had read over their Sunday School papers. 
Then they had taken a quiet little walk, and 
had talked in subdued Sunday tones of the 
sweet new world into which Aunt Susie had in- 
troduced them during this one wonderful week. 
The whole world looked different to them already, 
for they had, for the first time in all their young 
lives, really begun to think for themselves. 

To be sure, there were hundreds of wonderful 
things about it that they could not any of them 
even begin to understand, but they honestly tried 
to put into practice every little rule and law, 
even when they did not understand, and their 
days had already begun to be flooded with the 
sunshine of a new kind of love, — a new kind of 
peace and harmony, — a new blessing from the 
infinite source of All-Good. 

When the Children’s Hour summoned them for 
their first Sunday evening in the big dining-room, 
they were full of many sweet and serious ques- 
144 


The Temple of Silence 


145 


tions which were a great source of satisfaction 
to Aunt Susie, as they showed her that her efforts 
had already begun to bear fruit, and that the 
children had gone deeper down into the real truth 
of the beautiful philosophy of life she had been 
trying to teach them than even her own hopeful 
self had dared to dream. 

“ Why is my Prince Will such a weak, back- 
boneless sort of a chap. Auntie Sue,’^ asked 
Frank, as he settled back in his chair, for the 
words of light and love he knew would come in 
answer. 

Simply because you have never tried to set 
him to work before my boy. You have drifted 
along, as circumstances seemed to direct, without 
any thought or care, as to which way the wind 
might blow, or what you might do, or say, so long 
as you didn^t get scolded, or punished. So, you 
see, poor, neglected Prince Will had a very small 
part to play in your life. Now, that you really 
want him to work, he doesn’t know just how to 
get at it. But he’ll learn! Spur him on for just a 
little while, and he’ll take hold of his business in 
earnest! ” 

“But, Auntie Sue, is there no way for us to 
make him strong? asked practical Olive, who 
wanted things done in a minute. “ Do we have 
to keep dinging at him, and pounding him on the 
back all the time?” 


146 


The Temple of Silence 


No, dear, there is a way, — a sure way of bring- 
ing to us speedily all that we really desire. I 
have not gone very deeply into it before, because I 
wanted the fairy-tale of the soul-kingdom to sink 
deep into your heart first, until it became real to 
you. Then you would be better able to under- 
stand the rest of it, — the real, true source of 
power! ” 

What is it, Auntie Sue,’^ asked Ethel. Don’t 
you think we can understand it now? ” 

Perhaps,” said Aunt Susie, looking around 
into their eager little faces with a silent prayer 
for help. “ I am sure you can all understand 
it, if I can only tell it in such a way as will make 
it as clear, and plain, and real, and true, as I see 
it myself.” 

‘^Of course you can. Auntie Sue,” said Oma, 

you always do! ” 

Well, listen then, and as I draw it for you, 
just as my soul sees it, will you all please try to 
form in your own minds the mental picture I am 
trying to paint in the best words I can find?” 

“ Of course! ” 

“ Then, — see! In the very centre of the Castle 
of Faith, stands the king’s prayer-room, — his 
chapel, — his holy of holies, — the very inmost 
chamber of the soul, where nobody ever enters 
but himself. It is called the Temple of Silence. 


The Temple of Silence 


147 


As he goes into this room all by himself, and 
shuts the door, so that the world cannot get to 
him, and so that he can see nothing, and hear 
nothing, but the voice of his own spirit, he ‘ asks 
what he will, in faith believing,’ and his prayers 
are always answered. This Temple of Silence is 
the real source of all his power. Why? Because 
it is the little inner room where he withdraws 
from the world to commune with his God, — the 
little closet where he comes into touch with the 
universal supply, — where he knows that he can 
ask ^ what he will,’ and ‘ he shall receive,’ — 
where he learns what the great All-Father 
meant, when he said, ^ Be still and know thht I 
am God!”’ 

But, Auntie Sue, how can he shut the door, 
so that he will not see and hear?” asked Alice. 

“ By growing very still, dear, both in body and 
mind. By not thinking a thought, — just literally 
emptying the mind of every wonder and worry, — 
and then, closing the eyes and ears, and being 
very, very still, listening to the whispers of the 
‘ still small voice ’ within. Do you not remember 
how we are told that when we pray, we shall 
‘ Enter into the closet, and shut the door, and 
there pray to our Father in secret, who heareth 
in secret?”’ 

Why, yes,” said Edna, eagerly. That was 


148 


The Temple of Silence 


our Sunday School lesson just a few weeks 
ago.” 

“ But our teacher didn’t explain it to us in the 
way you do^ Auntie Sue/’ added Olive. 

‘‘She probably didn’t understand it the way 
I do, Olive. Her eyes had not yet been opened to 
the full meaning of it all! She had not found her 
real Self yet, in the Kingdom of the Soul.” 

“ But when can we get time for all this. Auntie 
Sue,” asked Frank, who considered himself a very 
busy boy. 

“ The very last thing at night is the best pos- 
sible time, dear boy, — the very last thing before 
you go to sleep. That is the time, too, when you 
should give your Steward, through your Prime 
Minister, his orders for the next day. When all 
is quiet and still, and you have succeeded in al- 
together forgetting all the cares and worries of 
the day, and putting all other thoughts aside, 
call up the Steward in your mind, and make him 
a very real little fellow to you. Talk to him just 
exactly as you would talk to another little boy. 
Say to him, ‘ Now see here. Steward, I am a good 
boy! I am sweet-tempered! I am generous! I 
am ambitious! I am truthful! ’ — or whatever you 
most want to be, you know, — and then, tell him, 
‘To-morrow, I am not going to lose my temper 
once, — I am going to conquer the Giant Ill-Tern- 


The Temple of Silence 


149 


per^ — I am going to be unselfish, — I am going to 
keep busy, — I am going to do every task I have to 
do, and “ keep smiling ” all the time Pm doing 
it!^ — or, whatever it may be that yon want to 
do, you know. Then, allow yourself to drift 
gradually off to sleep with the thought on your 
mind that you want him to carry out, trusting 
him to do just as you tell him, in the same way 
that you would trust any worker you had hired to 
do something for you, if you had any confidence 
in him at all. Do this, every night of your life, — 
get into the habit of never allowing yourself to 
go to sleep, without first ordering your life for 
the next day,— and this wonderful Steward will 
just bring anything to pass. He works while you 
are asleep, you know, and if you don^t give him 
some definite task to do^ he is quite likely to be 
busy in all kinds of crazy, fantastic dreams and 
nightmares, that will do nobody any good. It is 
another case of ^ Satan finding some mischief 
still for idle hands to do,’ for he is sure to get 
into mischief if you do not keep him busy.” 

Aunt Susie looked around the room anxiously. 

I wonder if I have made it all plain,” she said. 

“O yes. Auntie Sue, — yes!” said Hattie 
eagerly. And it is such fun! I can hardly wait 
to begin ! ” 

The last thing at night, you say, Auntie? ” 
asked Will, thoughtfully. 


150 


The Temple of Silence 


Yes, because, as I said, the Steward is more 
open to receive your instructions at this time, and 
is more easily influenced by all you say, just be- 
fore the Prime Minister goes off duty for the 
night. That is just why I have put our Chil- 
dren’s Hour the last thing before bed-time, so 
that you will be apt to think about all the beau- 
tiful and wonderful, and yet perfectly true things, 
the last thing before dropping off to sleep. Then 
the Steward will do his work, you see, while the 
Prime Minister is resting, and unable to reason 
wdth him, and so, perhaps, counteract the sug- 
gestions and orders you have given him, before 
they are carried out!” 

It seems too good to be really true,” said 
Alice, dubiously. 

On the contrary, dear, it is too good not to be 
really true,” said Aunt Susie. Then, after a 
pause, she added, I wonder how many of you 
ever build air-castles?” 

I do ! ” was the reply from nearly all the 
crowd. 

It’s a good habit,” said Aunt Susie. 

Why, Auntie Sue, we have been scolded, and 
scolded, and scolded for,” — began Olive. 

^‘Sh!” said the others warningly. 

“ That must have been, dear,” said Aunt Susie, 
by some one who did not know that air-castles 


The Temple of Silence 


151 


are only mind-pictures of our possibilities — men- 
tal, or thought-forms of our aims, our ambitions, 
our ideals! After this, while in the Temple of 
Silence, every night, before going to sleep, build 
for yourself an air-castle, — a mental picture of 
just the kind of a girl or boy you want to be, — 
of just the kind of a future Self you want to 
have, — of just the kind of a life you want to live! 
Build it as grand and fine as you choose, — you 
cannot have it too fine, — for, as I said once be- 
fore, what you are able to picture in your mind, 
you are just as able to build in your life. If it is 
a part of your mind, it is just as surely a part of 
the life you are capable of living, — for it is a 
part of your very Self, — the real You. Build it 
as high as you can, paint it as bright as you 
choose, and then say, ^ This is the real Me! This 
is the life I am building for myself! ’ and hold the 
picture firmly in your imagination, adding to it 
as your inner growth makes you able to see big- 
ger and brighter things ahead. Then, draw it 
to you! Some day, — when you are fully ready for 
it, if you hold the picture, and always keep ex- 
pecting it, and working toward it, day by day, it 
will surely come true! ” 

That is the sweetest part of the whole fairy- 
tale, isn’t it. Auntie Sue? ” said Olive. It will 
come true.” 


152 


The Temple of Silence 


Yes, and in this way, you will gain control of 
your inner Self, and so, of course, of your outer 
Self, — for your outer life is always what your in- 
ner life first plans. In this way, too, you will 
make Prince Will strong, and keep the White 
Knights ever ready and unfailing in the service 
of King Desire. And, in this way, you will be 
truly great, for you will have learned the one 
way to have absolute control over your own self, 
and, you know, ‘ He that ruleth his spirit is 
greater than he that taketh a city. Surely, there 
can be nothing in all the world any greater than 
to be completely master of one’s own Self.” 

The clock struck. 

Our poem! ” reminded the children in concert. 

You never let me forget that, do you? ” asked 
Aunt Susie, with an indulgent smile. Well, 
here is one I think you may find it helpful to re- 
member and repeat, — 

Build in your dreams a future true, 

And build it as you wish it, too. 

Picture it often, high and fair. 

And then,— just hold it always there. 

Whatever it may be, ’twill rise 
To life before your very eyes. 

When you are ready to receive 
The gift in which you thus believe. 


The Temple of Silence 


153 


Keep firm your hold on each Ideal, 
Until it merges in the Real, 

And in the Silence see it grow 
To just that form you seek to know. 

Remember, only building thus. 

Can lifers attainments come to us, — 
^ He who builds no castles in the air 
Will build no castles anywhere!’” 


CHAPTER XV. 


AMONG THE GIANTS 


TINT Susie had taken a book, and finding a 



cozy, shady spot on the broad veranda, had 
settled down for an afternoon^s reading. 
Sheltered behind the thicket of vines that 
clambered up to the overhanging roof, she felt 
quite secure from any interruption or intrusion. 
Listening to the carolling of the birds in the trees, 
and watching the little butterflies and humming- 
birds as they flitted about among the roses, she 
forgot her book entirely, and did not come back 
to her surroundings, till she heard the sound of 
voices in the yard, just a little way on the other 
side of the screening vines. 

I don^t care what anybody says, — Pm not go- 
ing to do any such thing!” That voice was cer- 
tainly Henryks. “I don’t have to!” 

Of course you don’t have to, Henry,” said 
Alice. But it would certainly please Mamma, 
and — O that reminds me. Mamma told me to ask 
Aunt Louise for a stew-kettle, and — well, I’m not 


154 


Among the Giants 


155 


going to let any old Giant get the best of me to- 
day! Goodbye!” 

And a scurry of feet proved that Alice was 
putting her resolve into immediate action. 

“ I hadn^t thought of that,” said Henry. “ Til 
just go and do it right away. It won^t hurt me, 
anyway, and it will give Prince Will a lesson that 
he needs. Come, Prince, right-about-face now, 
and take charge of the White Knights for a 
change! ” And his voice rang out from a distance 
in a defiant, Good-bye, old Giant Stubborn- 
ness! ” 

There was a thoughtful little silence on the 
other side of the vines. Then Aunt Susie heard, 
from Ralph^s unmistakable little voice, 

“Well, good-bye, Hattie. l\e put off carrying 
in that wood for an hour already, and I’ll not let 
it go another single minute. You thought you’d 
beat this time, didn’t you, you mean old Giant, 
with the big hard name, but you can’t do it this 
morning! ” 

“ I’m going, too,’^ said Hattie. “ I have a great 
deal of mending to do. I don’t like, — yes, I do, 
too. Giant Laziness, — I like to do it, because it is 
just the thing for me to do now, to help grow 
right, — and I’m going to do it right away! ” 

And she, too, scampered away, and for a time, 


156 


Among the Giants 


the lawn seemed to be deserted again, and Aunt 
Susie smiled at the little struggles to which she 
had been an unseen, but a deeply gratified wit- 
ness. She was about to take up her book in 
earnest, when she heard voices in a louder key, — 
were they quarrelling, she wondered! 

“Well, youVe just got to do it, Mr. Frank 
Evans, said Will, — “ I don’t see any use in your 
acting so mean about it. Papa says it has to be 
just that way, and I simply don’t intend to fool 
my time away ” 

“ Will, I just think, — no, I don’t either. Will, — 
I’m not going to let the old Giant get inside my 
kingdom to-day, whatever may come. I’ll do it, 
if you think it’s my place. It’s not worth losing 
my temper about, anyway, and I won’t, — so there, 
Giant Ill-Temper, take that!” and Frank’s voice 
took on such a note of determination, that Aunt 
Susie smiled proudly, as she listened. 

“ You’re right, Frank. We won’t let the Giant e 
come between us. Papa told me to do it, anyway, 
so of course, it’s my work, — not yours! I am not 
going to have another failure to report to-night, 
either, Mr. Giant! I’ll go right off and do it, be- 
fore I forget!” said Will, in an altogether dif- 
ferent tone. 

“ But I’d just as soon do it. Will, if you 


Among the Giants 


157 


No, it^s my work. Pm responsible for it!” 
and Will evidently started on his mission. 

“ But, Will, wait a minute. I haven^t another 
thing to do, and Pd really like to help you, if 
you’ll let me. If we both work together, it won’t 
take so long, and ” 

That’s mighty good of you, Frank. Come on! ” 
And the voices died away in the direction of 
the barn. But the silence did not last long, for in 
a moment, another voice was heard, and Aunt 
Susie listened intently, while Olive asked, in real 
concern, 

“ O did you hurt you, Ethel? ” 

“N-o-o-o! Of course I didn’t! — I’ll play I 
didn’t, anyway. It won’t last long, if I just 
never mind! ” and the brave little voice was mak- 
ing a desperate struggle to stifle the tears that 
seemed bound to come. 

You’re getting just awful brave, Ethel. Come 
on up to the house, and I’ll let you play with my 
big doll all the afternoon,” said Olive. 

“ What, Olive? — Not Rosamund? ” asked Ethel, 
quite forgetting the hurt at once. “ Why, you 

said you would never ” 

“ Yes, I know I did, Ethel. But that was when 
the old Giant Selfishness had all his old chains 
on me. Pm breaking them now, you see, and — 
and — and — Pd just as soon you’d take Rosamund 


158 


Among the Giants 


as not,— I— I— I think I’d rather you did, Ethel,— 
yes, I want you to, — honest Injun, I do!” 

And away they ran to find the cherished dolly 
Olive had always until now kept so exclusively 
to herself. 

Yoh^re just a nasty, stuck-up thing, Edna 
Johnson,’’ said the voice of little Ira, and I don’t 
like — O yes, I do like you, too, and I don’t think 
you’re a bit naughty. I forgot all about that 
nasty Giant, and he just most made me be bad, 
didn’t he, Edna?” 

Yes, Ira, and I was stuck-up, too, I guess, for 
the bad Giant was after me, too. But I won’t 
let him get any closer. I’m not a bit better, or 
smarter, nor nicer than — than — anybody, — no, 
not even than Bruno! Let’s go and swing! ” 

And another battle was thus brought to a de- 
cided victory for two. Aunt Susie smiled, as she 
thought that she would not need to ask for any 
reports from the battle-field to-night. After a 
brief moment of meditation, she arose and put up 
her book, thinking she would go over to the home 
of the Johnson’s, and have a little talk with her 
sister. She was not letting any chance slip to 
advise with the mothers, and instil as many of 
her ideas into their minds as they were ready to 
receive. She wanted them both to be able to 
continue the work she had begun, when her time 


Among the Giants 


159 


had come to leave her little charges behind; and 
the mothers were just as eager for her counsel 
along these lines as she was anxious to give it, 
for they had already been forced to admit the real 
value of her method of training, and wanted to 
learn as much about it as they could. 

Just as she reached the fence, she heard the 
prattle of little Pete, on the other side, and she 
looked through cautiously. There, in the lane, 
lay a dead chicken, and standing beside it, looking 
first at the poor, lifeless bird, and then at little 
Pete, who bent accusingly over him, was a very 
guilty Bruno. As a puppy, Bruno had been con- 
siderably tempted by the nearness of the poultry- 
yard, but since he had grown to full-fiedged dog- 
hood, they had thought the old habit had been 
thoroughly overcome. Evidently, he had again 
given in to the old puppy taste for young chicken, 
and Pete had caught him in the act, but too late 
to save the life of the innocent victim. 

Aunt Susie listened, silently, as the little voice 
went on. 

“ Bruno, you is a good dog,’^ he said, sweetly. 
“ You wants to be kind and good, and so you is, 
but you just didn^t seem to want it hard enough 
dis time, did you, poor doggie? You wanted the 
chicken worser, I^m Afraid! The bad Giant got 
the best of you this time, ^cause you didn^t send 


160 


Among the Giants 


out White Thinks enough to kill him dead. Your 
Thinks was black and bad, Bruno, Fs Afraid! 
Next time, just be sure to want to be a good, kind 
dog, worser than you wants the chicken, then the 
old Giant can’t make a slave out of you like this, 
you see! ” 

The little fellow leaned over and stroked the 
feathers of the dead fowl. 

^^Poor little chicken!” he s4id, with real 
pity in his baby voice. It didn’t want to die a 
single bit, Bruno. Maybe it wasn’t weady to go 
to Heaven at all!” Then, noticing the drooping 
tail of the dog, and the look of real sorrow in the 
big eyes, he threw his arms around the shaggy 
neck. “Poor doggie!” he said. “It wasn’t the 
real Bruno at all, was it? No, the real Bruno is 
sorry, — awful sorry ! Pete’s sorry, too ! — so sorry ! 
’Cause the bad Thinks is — is — is — so bad to Bruno 
and Pete! ” 

As the little voice broke. Aunt Susie hurried 
away, for her eyes were full of tears. As she 
passed the shed, before entering the Johnson 
kitchen, she heard Marion, busy at some little 
task, and almost laughed aloud at the accom- 
paniment he was chanting to his w^ork. 

“No, I ain’t a-goin’ to quit, — so I ain’t! I am 
going to stick tight, — tight, — tight — ! No, I 
ain’ a-goin’ to quit, Mr. Giant! — so I ain’t! And 
you’d better take yourself out o’ sight!” 


Among the Giants 


161 


She wondered if he recognized the rhyme and 
rhythm of his song, or if he was too much occu- 
pied with the “ rhyme and reason ” to think of 
the form of the words. Certainly, his voice 
proved that he was very much in earnest. Just 
inside the hall, too, she heard another voice from 
the adjoining bedroom, that she recognized as 
belonging to little Oma. She did not look in, 
but she pictured to herself the little scene that 
she knew was taking place, as she heard the de- 
termined words: 

You know you wanted me to wear the pretty 
red ribbon,’^ she said, ^^you horrid old Giant 
Pride! — ’cause, then, you thought you’d have 
your nasty old chains fastened all the tighter on 
me! But I didn’t put it on! And I won’t! And 
you just can’t make me, either, ’cause my nice 
White Knights won’t let you. I’m going to brush 
all the nice curls out of my hair, and braid it all 
up tight and close, and then tie it with this nasty 
old black ribbon, so I am, and then I’m going 
to put on my very worstest dress, that’s what 
I am, and — and — that’s the way I’ll just fix you, 
old Giant Pride! So there, now!” 

Aunt Susie hurried away. She re-entered the 
Evans’ home, about an hour later, just as Harry' 
came bounding in behind her. 

‘‘O Aunt Susie!” he said, ^^Are you back? 


162 


'Among the Giants 


That’s bully! I just came back,” — here his head 
drooped bashfully, and he looked a little sheep- 
ish, as he lowered his voice, — well, you see I 
forgot to wash my neck, until I got ’most down 
town, and I just ran back as fast as I could for 
fear the old Giant would drag me the other way. 
And now. I’m just going to put on a clean waist, 
too, and comb my hair over. I’ll fix him! ” 

And he hurried on to the bath-room, while 
Aunt Susie hunted up her sister, to relate, in 
her own interesting way, some of the incidents 
she had witnessed. 

You are doing w^onders with them all, Susie,” 
said Louise. I am only hoping and praying that 
I may find the right way to carry on your work 
when you have gone away from us again!” 


CHAPTER XVI 


DAY DREAMS 

A NOTHER week had passed away, — another 
precious week of Aunt Susie^s visit. She 
had not tried to present any new thoughts, but 
had led them out to talk of their own experi- 
ences^ and had simply explained more clearly, 
adding here and there a necessary word of illus- 
tration, the working out of the lessons she had 
already given them, assisting them to sink 
deeper and deeper into the little minds. 

She was very much pleased at the way they 
had taken hold of all she had told them, and 
more pleased to see how real a part of their lives 
the bringing true of the fairy-tale had already 
become. If she could only make it hold so fast 
that they would not let go, after she had left 
them! 

The parents had witnessed with genuine as- 
tonishment the changes that had so soon taken 
place in the outer lives of their children. They 
could not help seeing the eagerness with which 
163 


164 


Day Dreams 


they had attacked their daily tasks so different 
from their former forced obedience to an unwel- 
come command, nor could they fail to notice the 
earnestness with which even the youngest ones 
were trying to get the better of their old habits 
of thought and act, and to rise above the friction 
of every day’s occasional discouragements. The 
great law of Keep Smiling ” was making itself 
felt everywhere and all the time. 

Quarrels were infrequent, and were always 
sure to end in an acknowledgment of wrong on 
both sides^ before any great clash of swords. 
They repeated their little verses until even the 
parents had memorized them, from being forced 
to listen to them so often. The spiritual atmos- 
phere of both homes had certainly been changed 
just as the air is freshened and purified by the 
throwing wide open of doors and windows. 

And Aunt Susie was keeping the promise she 
had made to herself, and was not letting the 
mothers escape their lawful share of the con- 
tagion. She grasped every opportunity of drop- 
ping a word here or there that might help to 
open the eyes of her custom-blinded sisters to a 
better way of thinking, and a nobler building 
up of life. She had not told them the fairy- 
tale, — that was just for the children, except as 
they themselves chose to take their parents into 


Day Dreams 


165 


their confidence, — but the beautiful philosophy 
that she was living every day of her life was one 
that was simply bound to creep here and there 
into even the most commonplace conversation, 
and so they were gradually absorbing into their 
own lives the subtle suggestions, — the seed- 
thoughts — that were sometime so sure to ger- 
minate and grow. For does not the poet say, 

We are sowing, daily sowing 
Countless seeds of good or ill; 

And a power beyond our knowing 
Nurses them with patient skill: 

By a whisper sow we blessings. 

By a breath we scatter strife; 

In our thoughts and looks and actions 
Lie the seeds of death or life.” 

Now and then. Aunt Susie had found herself 
the unseen witness to just such little struggles 
as on the eventful day of the last chapter, and 
it had, indeed, done her good to see Hattie con- 
quer her lazy inclinations, Ethel close her lips 
tightly together and force back the tears at 
some sudden hurt to her sensitive little body, 
Olive display the most marked unselfishness, 
while Alice had formed the habit of flying 
promptly at her mothers call, and Edna grew 


166 


Day Dreams 


very humble, and ^‘meek, and lowly of spirit.” 
Even little Ira made wonderful efforts to be 
polite, and Frank’s heroic battles with his quick 
temper were a fine thing to see. 

“ I’ve stopped eating pepper. Auntie Sue,” he 
would say^ laughingly, so you see, the old Giant 
hasn’t any fire to feed on!” 

As for Oma, she did not spend nearly so much 
of her time dancing before the mirror, and ad- 
miring the dainty little image it reflected, and 
little Pete would say, 

I saw a big no, I didn’t, either Mr. 

Giant! I didn’t see a thing, — so there!” 

And Aunt Susie had watched this fellow 
closely. She had felt that there was something 
in his case that she did not yet understand. He 
did not tell any naughty stories for any personal 
good that came to himself. It was never to es- 
cape punishment, nor to receive any reward. 
Then why? 

One day. Aunt Susie had come upon him, lying 
out on the green grass of the front lawn, staring 
with wide-open eyes at the tops of the trees 
above him. 

What are you looking at, Pifer? ” she asked 
cheerily, as she drew near. Tell Aunt Susie 
what you see!” 


Day Dreams 


167 


Pete started and sat up, rubbing his eyes 
briskly. 

Why, Auntie Sue, I saw — I saw ” then he 

stopped, and turned red, and dropped his head in 
shame. No, Auntie Sue, it was just a lie, — a 
naughty, wicked^ bad lie! I didn’t see a thing, — 
not a thing! 

Aunt Susie sat down beside him, and drew the 
little form close to her. 

“No, dear, no! I don’t think it was a lie at 
all. I think it must have been a very pretty pic- 
ture, — a dream-picture, — a vision! Tell Auntie 
Sue all about it!” 

And thus encouraged, the little fellow began, 

“ Why, Auntie, I saw — I mean, I thought I 
saw, — a little girl, with curls, — O such long, yel- 
low curls! — tied with a big, blue ribbon, — and a 
white dress, and shoes, and stockings, and a big 
sash, — just like Oma’s, only blue, like the pretty 
sky! and, — and, — she came and talked to me, and 
she said to me, ‘ Come with me, Pifer, and I’ll 
show you just lots and lots of pretty things, — 
O such pretty, pretty things! ’ and then, — then, — 
then. Auntie Sue, she took my hand, — I mean, I 
thought she did, — and we went away off by the 
big, big lake where all the big boats are, you 
know, and she shelved me, ” 

And in a dreamy tone, the little baby voice 


168 


Day Dreams 


went on, and on, and on, till he had told the whole 
story. 

It was such a pretty thing to see. Auntie 
Sue,” at last he added, wistfully, “to be all just 
a nasty, naughty lie! ” 

“ But it wasn’t a lie, my darling little Pifer, — 
it wasn’t a lie at all! ” 

The little eyes opened wide, while a sudden 
light sparkled like a star in their depths. 

“Then what was it. Auntie Sue?” he asked. 

“ It was a dream, dear, — a very lovely dream! ” 

“But, Auntie Sue, I wasn’t asleep, — I know 
I wasn’t ! 

“ No, — I know you weren’t asleep. This was 
a day-dream, — a vision — ^just a little journey of 
that little Self that lives away down inside the 
Kingdom of the Soul I have told you so much 
about! ” 

“ Then it wasn’t really naughty. Auntie Sue? — 
it wasn’t really so wicked?” 

The wistful tone in the little voice went 
straight to her tender heart. The eager yearn- 
ing in the wondering eyes was really pitiful to 
see. 

“Naughty? Most certainly not, dear! — never! 
never! Don’t ever let the Black Knight’s make 
you think anything like that again ! ” 

And she kissed the quivering lips as they trem- 
bled in a glad, wistful smile. 


Day Dreams 


169 


Mrs. Evans stepped out on the veranda, and 
her sister joined her there. 

“ Has Pete been entertaining you with some 
of those everlasting lies of his?” asked the 
mother with a laugh that ended in a sigh. It 
does seem as though nothing in the world would 
ever cure that young one of that dreadful habit. 
Do you think he will ever outgrow it? ” 

Aunt Susie looked at her gravely. 

I hope not, Louise,” she answered, very seri- 
ously. 

^^Why, what can you mean?” asked her sis- 
ter. Don’t you think it is the most aggrava- 
ting sin that can get hold of a child? ” 

Come into the house, Louise,” was her only 
answer. I want to talk to you about our lit- 
tle Pifer.” 

Mrs. Evans followed her, obediently, wonder- 
ing what in the world could possibly be coming 
upon her now. 

Our little boy does not tell lies, Louise,” be- 
gan Susie, almost sternly, as they seated them- 
selves near an open window, wOiere the bright 
afternoon sun came streaming in. 

''What?” 

" No, he doesn’t tell lies at all. Have you ever 
known him to tell any bad stories about the other 
children, or deny anything he had done, or make 


170 


Day Dreams 


any false reports of any daily happenings, 
Louise? ” 

Why, — no, — I don^t remember that I ever 
have,’’ said the mother, thoughtfully. 

These wonderful tales of his own experiences 
are all the lies you have caught him in, then, as 
I understand it,” insisted Aunt Susie. 

Yes,” replied the mother. 

“ Then he has told no lies, my dear sister, and 
you simply must not tell him any more that he 
has, — nor let anybody else accuse him of it, or — ■ 
or — well, you may do more mischief to his life 
than you can possibly realize! You simply do 
not understand the baby at all! ” 

But, Susie, he says, — O you can’t imagine 
all the things he says sometimes, — and, — and — 
where in the world,” — began Mrs. Evans, greatly 
perturbed by her sister’s words. 

“ He simply has experiences, Louise, — beauti- 
ful experiences, and very real ones, — that you 
and the others cannot possibly understand. The 
boy is a genius, sister dear, — ^the sort of a genius 
out of which poets, authors, artists, musicians, 
and all great dream-workers are made. Don’t 
spoil it all! Don’t, I pray you! — nor let anybody 
else! ” 

I don’t know what you mean yet, Susie. Pete 
certainly has a very vivid imagination, if that is 


Day Dreams 


171 


what you mean,’’ said the mother, doubtfully, 
but ” 

It is not imagination, Louise, — not in the 
least. He does make up the stories that he tells. 
He has companions that you cannot see. He 
has visits from unseen forces of the air. He has 
more with him when you think he is all alone 
than at any other time, and they tell him beau- 
tiful things. His little spirit really wanders 
with them over all these wonderful places that 
he tells about, and his inner eye sees all the 
things he tries to picture to us less-fortunate 
creatures. Do not doubt him ! Do not make him 
think it is all so wrong and wicked, when it is 
really so very beautiful. If you do, Louise, I 
warn you right here and now, that you may not 
only ruin the little life utterly, but you may 
really cut it off all together. 

Mrs. Evans was now truly alarmed. She knew 
her sister had some very peculiar ideas. Never 
theless, she knew that she was absolutly truth- 
ful, and would not tell anything that she did not 
absolutely know to be a fact. She knew, too, how 
her sister loved the little boy, and had noticed 
how closely she had been studying him ever since 
she came to them. 

But how can we meet the situation, Susie? 
What can we say to the child? Or what can we 


172 


Day Dreams 


do? Shall we just let it go on and on, where- 
ever it may lead? 

^^Yes, — simply see as little of it as possible! 
School-life, when he begins to go, will help to 
direct it into proper channels. I would not have 
you coax it, or nurse it into any more active life, 
but just let it develop itself in its own way. It 
is a Higher Power than either yours or mine 
that is at work in the little fellow’s life, and we 
can trust it to mould aright whatever may be in 
store for him. In the meantime, let him tell his 
stories, whenever the impulse seizes him. He 
needs the chance of expression. It will do him 
far more hurt to shut them all up within him- 
self. Do not refuse him this means of outlet, 
or drive him to poor old Bruno for a confidante. 
Meet the telling of every experience in a mat- 
ter-of-fact way, as though it was nothing at all 
out of the ordinary. Say, ^That was a very 
lovely story, Pete. Where did you hear it?’ or 
‘Who told you that?’ and let him see that you 
are interested, that you do not frown upon what 
means so much to him, and is really, at present, 
at least, the larger half of his life. The child 
lives in two worlds, Louise. And, really, he 
tells his little stories very sweetly, don’t you 
think?” 

“ Yes, of course, but ” 


Day Dreams 


173 


Yes, of course, without any ^ Imt ^ Louise! Be 
very careful how you treat the matter! 

At the Children's Hour that night. Aunt Susie 
explained to them as much as she thought best 
for them to know of the great Giant they had seen 
in little Pete’s path, which had turned out to be 
an angel in disguise. They looked at him with 
a sudden sense of awe, and a new tenderness, as 
she gave them these lines for their evening poem : 

‘‘There are strange, mystic forces around us; 

There are angels our eyes cannot see; 

Their influences daily surround us. 

Wherever our pathway may be! 

They whisper their messages to us. 

And they grieve that we seem not to hear. 
While we know not the good they may do us 
As in love they are hovering near! 


CHAPTER XVII 


THE SPIRIT OF UNIVERSAL LOVE AND UNITY 

TT was during the third week of Aunt Susie^s 
^ visit that she came suddenly upon Will when, 
at an unguarded moment, he had seemingly for- 
gotten himself, and, unreasonably provoked by 
the apparent stubbornness of a favorite horse, 
was betraying some really cruel instincts to- 
ward the helpless beast. 

Aunt Susie did not say a word, but such a 
depth of sadness and real pain came into her 
eyes, that the boy came to himself at once, with 
a quick shudder of remorse. 

And that evening, as they gathered, with all 
their old eagerness around her, she directed her 
conversation skillfully around to the spirit of love, 
and Will guiltily felt that it was all meant just 
for him. 

One thing which we must all learn to realize 
in the very depths of us, my dears,’^ she began, 
before we can ever develop ourselves to the full- 
est extent of all that is within us, is our great 
174 


The Spirit of Universal Love and Unity 175 


one-ness with all creation. I do not mean with 
all people, alone, but with all created things, — 
all animals, all plants, all trees, all waters, — 
everything in Nature. We were all sent out from 
the great Universal Source, — each a part of the 
great Infinite Plan, — and so we are all a part of 
one another, the spirit of the Great God vibra- 
ting in living breath through every cell of animals 
or inanimate life. The horses, cows, sheep, 
dogs, birds, bees, butterflies, — every living thing, 
children, — are our brothers; the trees, rivers 
flowers, vines, shrubs and grasses are our com- 
panions, — because they, like us, are all children 
of the great All-Father, the creating Spirit of all 
life. And when we once thoroughly understand 
it, life is all harmony and peace, and we will 
send out our love to them, feeling that they, too, 
may understand, and may love us in return. We 
know that the animals do when we are kind and 
tender to them, — why not the plants?’^ 

I always think they hear us talk to them,” 
said little Oma. 

“ Certainly they do,” answered Aunt Susie. 

I talk to my plants at home, and I breathe my 
love about their leaves and little tendrils and 
buds, and I touch them gently as I water and 
tend them, till they grow and bloom much more 
rapidly and beautifully than my neighbors’ 


176 The Spirit of Universal Love and Unity 


plants, who do not try to speak to the little life- 
spirit within them. Of course they hear me, and 
obey the caresses of my voice.’’ 

know the trees and flowers say things to 
me,” said little Pete, who was beginning to dare 
again now, to put some of his quaint fancies into 
words. 

And I know they do, too, Pifer,” smiled Aunt 
Susie. And if we only keep our ears tuned to 
their voices, and our hearts open, we can come 
so close to the great throbbing heart of Nature, 
that every one of her children will talk to us, 
and will teach us many things that we shall be 
better and happier for knowing. Then life will 
all be harmony, and one eternal song of universal 
love. It will be like a quartette, or a band, or 
an orchestra. You all know a little something 
about music, I know, — enough to know that each 
voice in a quartette sings a difi'erent part, just 
as each instrument in the band or orchestra 
plays its own part. Not one of the parts would 
be very beautiful alone, — the flute, snare-drum, 
and several instruments of the long-sustained 
notes, as well as the bass voice in the quar- 
tette, — might grate dreadfully upon our ears, if 
they gave their parts all alone. But when they 
sing or play together, in perfect time with one 
another, and in perfect chord, what beautiful 


The Spirit of Universal Love and Unity ITT 


harmony they do make, and how necessary each 
individual part is to the making up of the perfect 
whole! If one part is out of chord or time, the 
discord becomes very evident at once to our 
ears, just as one person out of harmony with 
the divine law of love and peace may cause con- 
siderable break in the harmony of our surround- 
ings. Why, my dears, all of Nature’s parts are 
very necessary to the perfection of the world! 
We should never carelessly break off the twig 
of a tree, or break the stem of a flower. It is cruel 
to step on a worm, to pull the wings from a poor, 
little fly, or to step on a harmless bug, — indeed, 
to cause one unnecessary pang of suffering to 
any living thing. It is really wicked not to allow 
every one of God’s creatures its right to live its 
life and build up its own little self as God meant 
it to do. Then they will all be our playmates and 
companions, giving us back love for our love, — all 
Nature’s children together, — and we will never 
be alone. We shall love to listen to the croaking 
of the frogs in the evening or early morning, to 
the cackling of the hens, the crowing of the 
roosters, the sounds of waking life in all of Na- 
ture’s world, because they will be to us as the 
voices of our friends, our kin.” 

“ But how can we come into touch with them, 
Auntie Sue? ” asked Olive. How can we get 
acquainted? ” 


178 The Spirit of Universal Love and Unity 


By loving them, dear, — simply loving them! 
Love is a universal language that every living 
thing understands. They very soon know who 
loves them, — indeed, they sense the nearness of 
their friends even more surely and quickly than 
we do. And if we listen, we can soon learn to 
know what they would say to us. We can dis- 
tinguish, one from the other, the different voices 
of the birds and the bees, the crickets, and the 
grass-hoppers, and can catch the whisper of 
every breeze and stream. We can know what 
the trees would say to us in the rustling of their 
leaves, and in the crackling of their big boughs 
in the wind. I have a little way of my own of 
getting close to creation. I believe I will tell 
you my little secret! 

do! do! Please do, Auntie Sue!^^ they 
chimed. 

‘‘Well, I will, for it certainly works for me 
like a magic charm. I go out on my balcony the 
first thing in the morning, and take in a number 
of long, deep, full breaths of the pure, fresh 
morning air, before it becomes tainted by some 
of the foul breaths of wrong-thinking humanity, 
or poisoned with the bad thoughts that come 
pouring from the newly-opened windows of those 
who do not know how necessary it is to good liv- 
ing and healthy thinking that they should sleep 


The Spirit of Universal Love and Unity 179 


with their rooms wide open to the pure air of 
the night-time. Well, as I draw in a long 
breath, I think, as I inhale its force, — think 
strongly, sending out the White Knights with 
every ounce of my might, you understand, — 
opening my whole being to the breath as I draw 
it in, — ^ Now I am drawing into my whole being 
health and strength, and goodness, and purity, 
and love, and success from the very elements of 
God. I am drinking love from every living crea- 
ture. I am absorbing into my every nerve and 
muscle and vein the sunshine and light of all 
creation. Then, as I let out the breath in a long 
exhalation, I think, with just the same force and 
vigor in every word, ^ Now I am sending out all 
that health and strength, and goodness, and 
purity, and love and success to all the world, and 
every soul in it, to every animal, every bird, and 
bee, every plant and tree and flower, to bless, 
and brighten and sweeten, and hale, and cheer! ^ 
In this way, you see, I put into operation, two 
great laws, both the Law of Attraction, and the 
Law of Compensation.^^ 

“No wonder you love everybody and every- 
thing, Auntie Sue,’’ said Ethel, fondly, “ You just 
can’t help it! And neither can they help loving 
you back ! ” 

“ No, dear, of course not!” agreed Aunt Susie. 


180 The Spirit of Universal Love and Unity 


‘‘We certainly canT help anything that is a part 
of our nature, and when we once make all the 
good things that we desire the part of our Self 
that we are building, we can’t help doing good 
things, for the real Self has to express its own 
nature, — has to act out the impulses that are a 
part of it! King Desire’s Knights only need a 
little earnest practice to get into first-class work- 
ing order. And there is no one thing calculated 
to make us more happy, or strong, or useful, than 
this feeling of one-ness with all things, — this 
constant communion with the soul-forces of all 
creation.” 

“ And they will all really speak to us. 
Auntie Sue?” asked Olive. “ Eeally and 
truly?” 

“Really and truly! Everything will talk to 
you, and you may understand them even better 
than you do some people, because you will be 
in closer touch with them, — better acquainted, 
as it were. All Nature is alive with thought and 
feeling, and filled to overfiowing with love and 
sympathy. And in the air all about you are liv- 
ing spirits, — no, not ghosts of dead things, Alice, 
so don’t shudder! — but the spirits of all the 
thoughts that have been sent out by the great 
minds, as well as by the smaller, undeveloped 
minds, of the eternal past.” 


The Spirit of Universal Love and Unity 181 


^^What?’’ asked Ethel. Do thoughts really 
live so long?” 

“ Always, dear. All thought is immortal, even 
ours! Do you not see how careful we must be 
of what Thought-Knights we send out, and how 
we direct them? ” 

Our poem! Our poem!” cried Edna, as the 
clock began to strike. 

You must have a nice large collection of my 
jingles by this time, — a whole book and brain 
full!” smiled Auntie Sue. ^^Well, — let me see: 

I am one with the big world of Nature; 

I am one with the flowers and the trees; 

I am one with the glistening waters; 

I am one with the birds and the bees. 

I send out my love to the smallest, — 

Over each living creature I yearn. 

And back from the heart of all being, 

They send me their love in return. 

I am part of Infinite Creation, 

Of the air, — of those spaces above, — 

We are all held in closest vibration 
By the force of an infinite love!” 


CHAPTEE XVIII 


THE TEMPLE OF THE BODY 

A unt Susie was pleased the next day to 
come upon little Pete, standing with his 
small arm wound caressingly around the neck 
of old Bruno, and speaking to him earnestly, 
while the faithful animal wagged his tail in evi- 
dent understanding and approval. 

Bruno,” he was saying, “ you is a good dog, — 
you is! You is a very good dog. You is a part 
of me, — yes, you is, Bruno^ — and a part of Auntie 
Sue, too — you is our brother, — and you is a part 
of everything and everybody, — and you has a 
dear, sweet soul, — and you loves me, and I loves 
you, — ^just lots!” 

She stole away, softly, greatly pleased at the 
assurance that the seed sown must have surely 
taken root, when even this baby could under- 
stand. 

There seemed to be a great deal of merriment 
in the air all day. Several times, she had heard 
wild bursts of laughter from this or that corner 
182 


The Temple of the Body 


183 


of the yard^ and had noticed little groups of 
the children formed now in one place, and now 
in another, and her keen eye had seen that Will 
seemed to be the centre of attraction in every 
instance. Evidently, he was entertaining them 
in some way, she thought, but she paid but little 
attention. She was always glad to see them 
happy. She loved the sound of their light- 
hearted laughter. 

The children had all managed to take bad 
colds that were affecting their health in one way 
or another, and their mothers had wanted to 
dose them with this, that, or the other guaran- 
teed remedy,” but Aunt Susie had begged them 
to leave it all to her. 

They do not need drugs,” she said, “ but 
thoughts. Watch my plan, girls, and see if the 
effect is not much better than the after-results 
of your usual ^dope!’ If, after giving it a fair 
trials you prefer your own concoctions, why, of 
course, I cannot possibly have anything more to 
say in the matter.” 

And, as usual, of course. Aunt Susie had her 
own way. 

As the children entered the dining-room that 
night, it was plain to be seen that the spirit of 
gaiety was still rampant, in spite of the sniffs, 
and coughs, and sneezes that accompanied the 
smiles and laughter. 


184 


The Temple of the Body 


''What is the joke, children?” asked Aunt 
Susie, who always liked to have her share in 
their fun. 

" O Auntie Sue,” said Olive, wdth a snicker, 
"Will has just been too funny! You just ought 
to hear him!” 

" I should certainly like to,” said Aunt Susie, 
" for you know how much Auntie enjoys ' too 
funny ^ things!” 

All eyes were turned on Will with a giggle 
of expectation. 

" W-w-w-why,” he stammered, and then 
blushed and dropped his head while all laughed 
at him, heartily. He made another attempt, but 
broke down utterly. Then he looked at Frank, 
and nodded for him to explain. 

"You see. Auntie,” said Frank, "Will had to 
go to the station this morning for some express 
Papa had ordered, and while he was there, he 
saw a travelling man, who could not talk at all 
without the awfullest stammering, and it tickled 
Will so much that he has kept telling us how the 
man talked all day. It has been too funny!” 

And again they all laughed. 

" M-m-m-ay-b-b-be it w-w- wasn’t v-v-very 
k-k-kind. Auntie S-s-s ” — began Will. " B-b-but 
I d-d-d-didn’t m-mean t-t-to be c-cruel. I 
d-d-didn’t st-st-stop t-t-to th-think h-h-how b-bad 
it m-must b-b-be f-for h-him!” 


The Temple of the Body 


185 


Aunt Susie listened to his stuttering with sur- 
prise. 

It certainly was not kind, Will, to mock the 
poor fellow^s pitiable affliction. You should have 
felt very sorry for him. And why do you keep 
it up, now that you see for yourself how unkind 
it is?’’ 

Aunt Susie had never spoken to one of the 
children in so stern a tone before, and the lad’s 
flush was positively painful. The children did 
not laugh now. They saw that it was not so much 
of a joke as they had thought, after all! But 
they had been so accustomed all their lives to 
looking up to Will, and following his lead, that 
it had not occurred to them to think of the mat- 
ter from any other point of view than that of 
the fun it was affording them. Now they saw 
the cruelty of it, and they, too, felt ashamed of 
their merriment. 

Why, you see. Auntie, he can’t help it. He’s 
kept it up all day,” volunteered Hattie, “ and 
now he can’t stop when he wants to.” 

I see ! ” said Aunt Susie, in sudden under- 
standing, and seeing a good chance to point a 
lesson. What a splendid lesson for you all in 
the truth of several of our great laws, — first, the 
Law of Suggestion, — -second, the Law of At- 
traction, — and third, and most important, the 


186 


The Temple of the Body 


Law of Compensation. The man^s words sug- 
gested the act to Will^ — his Thought-Knights 
mingled with the man’s Knights by the power 
of attraction, — and now, he is paying for his 
cruel thoughts and acts. And do you not see, 
too, how easily some habits are formed?” 

The children felt suddenly depressed as they 
began to realize the extent of their wrong-think- 
ing all day long, and the serious consequence it 
may have brought down upon them. 

It is too bad. Will dear,” she added, and 
of course, I am very sorry. But you may have 
needed the lesson, and I am sure you will not 
soon forget it. And now let us not dwell upon the 
painful matter any longer, and she looked around 
at them with a smile that would have been quite 
sufficient to drive away any evil spirit that may 
have possessed them. 

A chorus of coughs and sneezes broke in upon 
the brief silence that followed. 

I see the Giant Ill-Health is nosing around 
a little,” Aunt Susie began. “ We must get after 
him at once. It will never do to let that wicked 
old fellow get into our atmosphere, — O dear, 
no!” 

“ Mamma was going to give us some medi- 
cine,” — began Edna. 


The Temple of the Body 


187 


Yes, indeed she was! said Aunt Susie, with 
mock indignation. “And what do you think of 
such impudence on her part? I soon put a veto 
on that! The idea! It is only mental medicine 
that we need, and I guess we know enough by 
this time^ to administer that to ourselves, don^t 
we? What^s the matter with King Desire and 
his Knights?” 

“ Do you mean that the King and his Knights 
can cure the body? ” asked Henry, in wonder. 

“ I most certainly do mean just that,” was the 
quick reply. “ And why not? What^s the use of 
having any king at all, if he isn^t any good just 
when we need him most? The idea! Why, I’d 
dethrone that kind of a king at once! ” 

“O my!” said several of the children. And 
“Isn’t it wonderful?” asked Olive. 

“ I have never said much to you before about 
the care of the body, for I knew that you had 
been taught to keep it always sweet and clean, — 
I knew you had learned to feed it on good, plain, 
wholesome food, and fresh water, — and that you 
always slept with your windows wide open to 
the fresh, pure air of Heaven. Your mothers 
have both been very careful about that, ever 
since their school-days. We must always keep 
our bodies perfectly pure and sweet and well, 


188 


The Temple of the Body 


you know, to make them fit places for the home 
of the soul, — the beautiful God-spirit, — that is 
our real Self. A real clean soul could not live 
in a soiled body, you knoW, any more than a 
clean-minded person can bear to stay in a filthy 
house. We must not only be very particular 
about keeping the body clean, but we must be 
very sure to let no disease get any foothold in 
it.” 

But how can we help it? ” asked Frank. 

Just this way,” replied Aunt Susie. “ Our 
faithful Steward not only attends to all the other 
business of our life, but he directs all the actions 
of our bodies, — those actions of the heart, stom- 
ach, lungs, bowels, — every one of the wonderful 
organs over which we have no control. Our 
bodies, you know, are full of thousands of little 
living cells, and in each of these cells is a little 
life-germ, — a little man-servant, as you might 
say, — who takes care of it, and keeps it clean 
and in repair. This is the spark of that great 
divine life-principle that keeps us alive. These 
little servants are continually tearing down old 
worn-out cells, and building new ones, so our 
bodies are constantly being made over, — always 
according to the Steward's direction. Now, don’t 
you see how we can have just such bodies as 
we want? We have only to direct the Steward 


The Temple of the Body 


189 


as to what we want our bodies to become, to 
have them made over into just what we wish.” 

‘^B-b-but h-h-how?” stammered Will. 

‘‘ In just the same way that we direct him in 
anything else. Say to him, the last thing to- 
night, ‘ See here^ Steward ! I see there is some trouble 
in the head of the temple^^ or the ''throat^'* or the 
^ chest or wherever your difficulty may be. ^ It must 
be that the servants in that part of the temple are 
letting things get clogged up^ — they cam’t be attend- 
ing to their work properly, Now^ I just won'll have 
this ! Either make them get busy^ and clear out all 
this disturbance^ right amay^ or else turn them all 
out^ altogether^ and put new servants in their place^ 
who will look after things ! This is my body^ and 1 
won't stand for any such slip-shod service, I simply 
will not have anything in any part of my system but 
the most perfect health and strength ! ’ Talk to him 
very firmly — ^just what you want, you know, and 
just as you want it, — and then, trust him to do 
it! In the morning, you will see a great change. 
Then get up in the morning with the thought, 
‘How much better I am! And I am going to 
get better all day, too!’ and the Knights will 
fiy to bring you health and strength from the 
universal Source of Supply!” 

“ Why is anybody ever sick. Auntie Sue, if it 
is so easy to keep well? ” asked Alice. 

“ They either do not know the Law, Alice, or 
else they have not enough faith in it to put it 


190 


The Temple of the Body 


into operation. It is not everybody in this 
world who has learned how to take care of his 
own temple! And by the way, Will, you will 
have to talk very strongly to your Steward to- 
night to get rid of that habit you have so thought- 
lessly brought upon your self!^^ 

“ But listen. Auntie Sue,” said Henry, I am 
sure you would not blame Will quite so much 
if you knew how really funny the w'hole thing did 
look! You see, the boy at the station is a great 
stammerer, — he seems to be almost possessed by 
some evil spirit that won’t let go of his tongue 
at all. Well, you see this big fat travelling man 
who couldn’t speak either was trying to find out 
by the boy what time the train left, and the poor 
kid didn’t dare attempt to answer him, because 
he was afraid the big man would naturally think 
he was trying to mock him, and so lick him half 
to death. That was the way it was when Will 
got there, and saved the day by telling the fat 
man what he wanted to know. But it was all so 
funny. Will couldn’t help telling us about it! 

Yes,” said Hattie, “ and after he told it once, 
we just kept him at it. It was our fault as much 
as Will’s, and I think we ought to be punished, 
too, if he has to be!” 

“ It is kind of you to shoulder your share of 
the blame, children, and I know Will appreciates 


The Temple of the Body 


191 


it. I don’t think his punishment will last long, 
when he gives his Steward the proper orders. 
Let us all hold the thought for him in the 
Silence to-night, and send out our Knights to 
help his in banishing the bad spirit. And all of 
you must remember after this, and never mock 
any habit you may not wish to adopt for your- 
self.” 

Auntie Sue,” said Oma, timidly, after they 
had discussed the healing process a little while 
longer, ^‘is it really, truly wicked to want to be 
pretty? ” 

^‘Certainly not,” was Aunt Susie’s prompt re- 
ply. The God who made the world meant all 
things in it to be things of . beauty, and all peo- 
ple to be attractive to one another. But we must 
not think first of our looks, you know, for it is 
the real Self within us that makes its mark upon 
the body. If we always think sweet, lovely 
thoughts, and do kind, loving deeds, — always 
^ Keep Smiling,’ and try to make everybody glad 
around us, our faces will, naturally enough, show 
the whole world what beautiful thoughts we 
have inside; for the kind of thoughts we think 
make their mark upon our faces, and the eyes 
you know are the ‘ windows of the soul ’ through 
which it looks out upon the world, — and in 
which the world peers to find out, if it can, what 


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The Temple of the Body 


manner of soul dwells within. If we are truly 
beautiful within, we can^t help being just as 
beautiful without. It is only when a pretty face 
tells of a really sweet soul, that it is truly beau- 
tiful to the one who understands the reading of 
human nature. We impress people, not by our 
faces, but by our thoughts.” 

^^Then it can’t be right, can it. Auntie Sue,” 
put in Hattie, “ for women to use face-powders 
and paints and all that stuff? ” 

“ No, for that is a sham, a covering up of the 
real Self, and a pretending to be what one is 
not. I do not believe in false appearances of 
any kind, — false hair, false figures, or anything 
that serves to disguise the real Self, for the 
world can only judge us by what it sees, and I 
want it to judge me for what I am.” 

But how about false teeth, Auntie Sue? ” 
asked Frank mischievously. 

Those are for use, and not for looks alone, 
and are necessary for the health of the body; so 
I think when I get old and toothless, I shall 
probably adopt them,” replied Aunt Susie, with 
a smile that disclosed such a perfect set of teeth 
that that time of need seemed very far in the 
distance, indeed. 

“ But to take care of my body,” said Alice, who 


The Temple of the Body 


193 


was very fond of certain good things to eat, can 

I never eat green corn, or cucumbers, or ” 

“ Eat anything and everything you like, dear — 
whatever your stomach craves. Nothing can 
hurt you unless you let it.’^ 

“ Let it?^^ 

Yes, by drawing the sickness to you by think- 
ing sick thoughts, and believing them.” 

But everybody says ” 

“ Yes, dear, but we were not to let other peo- 
ple’s Black Knights get into our kingdom. These 
people have thought for years that certain things 
would hurt them and have always eaten them 
with that thought in mind. So, of course, the 
thought brought the ^ hurt ’ they called. When 
you eat, think, — ‘ this food is going to do me 
good. It will build up the cells of my body, make 
good, new red blood, make me strong, and keep 
me in good condition, — my whole body feeling 
fine!’ No matter what you eat, hold that 
thought, chew the food long and well, enjoying 
every last crumb, and it will help you. It has 
to, when you command it so, because it is you 
alone who are master of yourself. Why, I never 
think of telling my stomach what it can have! 
how can I know what it wants, or how much 
it can handle, unless it tells me, and asks for 
what it needs? That is its business, not mine. 


194 


The Temple of the Body 


I have my own business to look after, so I can’t 
possibly look after it, too. I simply tell King 
Desire to send out the command for health, and 
he keeps the Knights busy. Then I never fail to 
remind the Steward that it is his business to 
keep me well and strong and young, — and just 
trust the servants of my body to look after their 
own part of the business, so they attend to all 
the rest. Well, I see that it is time for bed 
again. Now, remember, whatever may at any 
time seem to be going wrong inside the Temple of 
your Body, give the Steward his orders, and Fll 
guarahtee that he will attend to his business. 
He has never failed me yet. Here is a little verse 
for you to repeat, when you find yourself at all 
inclined to think sick-thoughts, — 

Away with the dreams I have had 
Of feeling so sick and so bad! 

To think of such nonsense is wrong, 

When I am so well, and so strong. 

In future, I just mean to see 

The health and the strength thaFs in me, 

For such dreams are too foolish to tell 
When I know I am perfectly well ! ’’ 


CHAPTER XIX 


WHITE KNIGHTS 

HE children’s colds disappeared as if by 
magic, much to their mothers’ surprise, 
and it must be admitted, not a little to their own, 
while Will, in the course of a day or two, had 
completely mastered the difficulty in his speech. 
One bright Thursday morning, during the third 
week of Aunt Susie’s last month with them, 
she proposed taking them with her for one last 
long ramble in the woods. 

The contrast between their first visit to the 
heart of Nature’s home and this, their last one 
for possibly many years, was indeed very notice- 
able. Then, they had been careless, light-hearted 
children, blind to so many of the beautiful books 
spread all around for their reading; now, every 
little voice seemed to have a message for them, — 
every tiny growth, its own hidden lesson. They 
had come into touch with Nature, and were 
really becoming acquainted with her. 

See, Auntie Sue,” said Marion, who remem- 
bered what his aunt had once told him about the 
195 


196 


White Knights 


little twig, ^^just look at that poor crooked tree 
over there! it didn^t get bent right when it was 
a child-tree, did it?^^ 

It didn’t have any Auntie Sue to start it 
straight, did it, Marion?” suggested Frank. 

“ Do you hear what the stream says. Auntie 
Sue?” said Henry, after they had gone a little 
farther. “ It says, ^ Henry, my voice is small 
now, and cannot be heard very far, and so is 
yours, but some day, when I get out to the big 
ocean and become a part of it, I will have a 
strong, loud voice, and make the whole world 
listen to my roar, — and just so will you, when 
you are a part of the busy man-w’orld just ahead 
of you ! ’ ” 

“ I believe you will, my boy,” said Aunt Susie 
gravely, for she saw big things ahead of the boy, 
when he had once thoroughly mastered his own 
powerful will. 

“O see this little plant. Auntie Sue,” cried 
Olive, excitedly. “ It is just peeping up through 
the ground!” 

“ And what does it say to you, dear? ” asked 
her aunt. 

Olive thought a moment. 

“ It tells me that it has been asleep a long, 
long time, down in the earth, but now it has 
heard a voice calling to it to come out to the 


White Kuights 


197 


light, and learn how to live in the world, and so 
it is pushing up out of the dark earth to find its 
real Self!^’ 

I ’spect it must have been its Auntie Sue’s 
voice it heard calling to it,” said little Pifer, 
looking down thoughtfully at the tiny plant. 

Hattie and Alice had run on a little ways 
ahead, and the merry party soon came upon 
them, looking with interest at a number of little 
mounds of sand, where a lot of tiny creatures 
were hurrying back and forth carrying loads, 
some of them fully as big as themselves. 

Just look at the ant-hills. Auntie Sue,” said 
Hattie, eagerly. “ The ants have been teaching 
me a lesson.” 

Nice aunts always teach lessons,” said 
Frank, with a sly glance at Aunt Susie. 

Of course they do, Frank ! ” said Aunt Susie. 

And what have these little creatures been 
teaching you, Hattie?” 

‘WVell, Auntie Sue, they’ve been talking real 
strong. They haven’t stopped to soften their 
words a bit! They said, ^ Now see here, Hattie 
Evans, look at us! we’re nothing but ants, — lit- 
tle, insignificant things, you think, — but just see 
how busy we are! We are all working hard to 
build us a warm, dry home for winter, and fill 
it up with plenty of food. Every one must help. 


198 


White Knights 


We won^t let the lazy drones live. The person 
who doesn’t do his share of the work has no right 
to any share of the food!’ Wasn’t that a good 
lesson for a lazy girl, Auntie Sue?” 

It would be, if we knew any lazy girls to 
hear it, Hattie, but I do not know any around 
here, do you?” asked Aunt Susie sweetly. 

0 hear that bird! ” broke in Ethel, gaily. “ It 
is singing, — 

^ Be happy! Be happy! 

Keep smiling, and be kind! 

Be happy, while the sun shines, 

When it doesn’t, — never mind ! ’ ” 

1 see plainly that Ethel is going to be a poet, 
all by herself. Auntie Sue,” said Will, “so we 
won’t be entirely without our verses, when you 
are too far away, and maybe too busy to send us 
any! ” 

“ I shall never be too busy for that. Will,” said 
Aunt Susie, — “ never, in all this world ! I shall 
think of you all many, many times every day!” 

“ See this little bit of a flower,” said Oma, 
“ looking right up to the sun! ” 

“ Yes, dear, and it will always turn its face 
to the sun, too! No matter how little light there 
is, the flower will always find it, and turn its face 
bravely that way,” responded her aunt. 


White Knights 


199 


Even if its Auntie Sue is going away? ” asked 
little Ira, wistfully. 

Yes, — even then, dear,’’ said Aunt Susie, 
tenderly. 

“ I suppose that’s the only way it knows how 
to ^ Keep Smiling,’ ” said Oma. 

Where is the little flower you’re all talking 
about?” asked Harry, who had just joined the 
group, and was searching the ground uncer- 
tainly. “I can’t see a sign of a flower!” 

Because you are doing just what I have been 
warning you about ever since I came, Harry 
dear,” said his aunt, laughingly. You are 
standing in your own light. Stand over here by 
us, so that the sun can strike the ground on this 
side of you, and you’ll see the brave little thing 
all right.” 

And they all laughed heartily at the quick 
jump he made to avoid throwing his shadow on 
the plant so near his feet. 

Auntie Sue,” asked Hattie, as they stood a 
few moments watching a group of butterflies, 
flitting about in the sunshine from flower to 
flower, “ do you remember telling us all about 
the butterflies, and just how the caterpillar spins 
his cocoon, and sleeps in it so long, before he 
comes out a butterfly? ” 

“ Yes, indeed,” said Aunt Susie. “ It was 


200 


.White Knights 


nearly two years ago that I told you that, wasn’t 
it? I am glad to see that you, too, remember.” 

I was just thinking,” said Hattie, timidly, 
how you had brought every single one of us out 
of our cocoons this summer Auntie Sue, and 
made real butterflies of us ! ” 

Don’t you think,” asked Edna, that maybe 
the poor caterpillar was dreaming, all the time 
that he was wrapped up in his old quilt, that 
maybe, sometime, he would have wings and be 
flying around the world like the pretty colored 
insects he had seen while he was crawling 
around the earth on his stomach?” 

“ Of course he was,” said Alice, — I feel just 
sure of it! And maybe his King Desire sent out 
so many Knights, and his Steward worked so 
hard all the time, that his dreams just simply 
had to come true!” 

“ What a sweet thought, girls ! ” said Aunt 
Susie, as they paused for lunch under a mammoth 
oak tree, and proceeded to make themselves 
comfortable for a^vhile before rambling any far- 
ther. The children began to pick up the acorns 
from the ground. 

Isn’t it wonderful,” said Will, turning them 
over in his hand, to think that such ^ great oaks 
from little acorns grow?’” 

“ Yes,” said Aunt Susie, “ but is it not a great 


White Knights 


201 


deal more wonderful to realize that this whole 
great big tree was once all wrapped up in so 
small a form as the tiniest acorn? The whole 
possibility of the tree was there all the time, the 
real Self of the tree, you know, — the soul of it, — 
the life-principle, — and when the right influences 
came to bear upon it, that tiny germ of self felt 
the call to come out into the world, — ^the urge of 
the spirit striving for full expression, — the desire 
of its destiny, — the craving for light and life. 
And so its desire brought it forth first as a tiny 
sprout, then the little shoot, reaching up to the 
light, then the tiny twig, pushing through the 
earth determined to be itself, to reach to the 
very highest of all that it was capable, — and now 
see the great giant of the woods that it is. And 
why? Simply because it would not be held down, 
nor denied its full freedom of expression. It 
would live out all the great, wonderful life 
of which it was capable. It would make all its 
dreams come true! And who knows what dreams 
of still higher forms of life it may be nursing 
down in its great wooden heart? Who can know 
what aspirations may shake its branches, and 
quiver in the fibre of even the tiniest twig, and 
leaf and bud?” 

The children looked at the great tree almost 
in awe. They had never realized before just what 


202 


.White Knights 


a wonderful thing it was! And then, they sank 
into their places and began to let loose their ap- 
petites upon the bountiful luncheon that had 
been provided for them. 

Kalph had been hugely enjoying a very beau- 
tiful, luscious-looking red apple. When he 
reached the core, however, he found a very bad 
black spot enclosing the seeds. 

“O look. Auntie Sue!” he said, with disgust. 

My nice, pretty-looking apple had a very bad 
heart — a bad real Self, — and it deceived me. It 
said it was good, all through, but it told me a 
naughty lie ! ” 

“0 1 wouldn’t say that, Kalph! Wasn’t it 
better for the poor, pretty apple to put the best 
side out, and to look pretty to you, and taste 
good to you, and in that way give you sweet 
thoughts, and make you happy, in the eating of 
it, and so do some good to somebody, than it 
would have been for it to shrivel all up, and for- 
get to ‘ keep smiling,’ and to have rosy cheeks, 
and a nice taste, and all that, just because of 
that one bad spot? If it had said, ‘ O dear! I 
have such a bad place inside me! I am no good! 
Nobody will like me! I can’t give any one any 
pleasure! I might better never have grown into 
an apple, or become ripe at all! I am just a 
miserable failure!’ — why, it would have grown 


.White Knights 


203 


sour, and looked crabbed and gnarled, maybe, 
and so never even begun to fill its mission in the 
world at all! So many people do that, — their 
whole lives lost, just because of one weak point, 
that they have not will-power enough to try to 
rise above, and crush out of sight! And isn’t it 
a shame? As it is, you see, your apple has done 
its very best, and given us all pleasure to look at, 
and you a double pleasure in the eating of it, 
and as it has lived its life well, — in spite of the 
one fault it tried so bravely to overcome, — none 
of us ever guessed at all that the fault was even 
there! ” 

After the lunch was all out of the way, they 
rambled on and on through the woods, finding 
new lessons everywhere, — new inspirations, en- 
couragements, and bits of truth. 

O what a dear, sweet breath this flower 
has!” said Alice. Do smell it. Auntie Sue! I 
do so love a fragrant flower!” 

Yes,” said Aunt Susie, as she bent her head 
to inhale the sweetness of the bloom. “ That is 
its atmosphere, — its influence. And don’t you 
see now, children, how we all create just such an 
atmosphere all around us by very force of our 
thoughts? People know whenever they get near 
us just the kind of thoughts we are in the habit 
of thinking. Some people call this atmosphere 


204 


White Knights 


that surrounds us, the aura. There are even 
some who can see it like a halo about our per- 
sons, and say that it is of different colors, accord- 
ing to the thoughts we think. It is, at any rate, 
the radiation of our thoughts, — our personal in- 
fluence or magnetism, — the fragrance shooting 
out from our souls, — and people sense it when 
they have not the clairvoyant vision to see any- 
thing but the material part of us.” 

O what powerful things thoughts are I” 
said Will. It almost makes me afraid to think 
at all, sometimes!” 

Yes, indeed. Will,” agreed his aunt, but 
Thoughtlessness is far more dangerous in the 
long run. Some one has put the real power of 
thoughts into these significant words, ‘ The 
thoughts of to-day become the dreams of to- 
night, the habits of to-morrow, and the character 
of the future.’ It certainly gives me more hap- 
piness than I can tell you, my dear children,” 
she continued, as she seated herself on a large 
stone, and took an old magazine from the bottom 
of her lunch-basket, to see how much you have 
learned to think for yourself, — every one of 
you, — not only to think but to see, and feel, all 
the glorious things around you. Now you are 
able to find the ^ sermons in stones, and the good 
in everything,’ that I hoped to lead you to look 
for.”^ 


White Knights 


205 


“ Please give us a sermon from this stone, 
Auntie Sue/^ said Frank in his most coaxing 
tone, lying down on the grass at her feet as he 
spoke, while the others, always ready for a story, 
composed themselves in easy attitudes to listen. 

“ This stone, then,’^ she said, after a brief 
pause, has stood in this very place for years, and 
years, providing a resting-place for many, always 
filling its own place in the world, and doing its 
best to learn the full lesson of its life. Some time 
it may come back to earth as a part of some other 
than the mineral kingdom, and when it has 
learned the lesson of that plane, it may come 
back again and again, learning all that it is 
given to learn in each little life, till it may even 
be a human being, and live just such lives, learn- 
ing just such lessons, as we are living and learn- 
ing here and now! Even we ourselves may have 
to come back to school many more times before 
all the universal lessons have been learned!’’ 

“ Do you really think we live lots and lots of 
times on earth. Auntie?” asked Olive. 

“ I think it must be so, dear, though it cannot 
really matter to us,” was the reply. “ All that 
need concern us now is the living of this present 
life well.” 

Auntie, why do our thoughts have to come 
back to us?” asked Will, suddenly. He had 


206 


White Knights 


thought a great deal about the Law of Compen- 
sation that had twice now given such hard blows 
to the old Giant that tormented him. 

Simply because our thoughts are like every- 
thing else in the universe, Will, and travel in a 
circle, just as the moon circles around the earth, 
the earth around the sun, and the sun around a 
still larger sun, you know. And so, of course, 
they finally are obliged to come back around to 
the starting place,’’ explained Aunt Susie. 

‘^1 see! Why, how natural that seems!” said 
Will, with a quick fiash of understanding. “ But 
one thing more bothers me. Auntie dear, and I’d 
like to have it all straightened out while it is in 
my mind. When we try so hard to please people, 
and help people, why are we so often misunder- 
stood, and not appreciated? Why do they think 
we have some wrong reason for doing as we do? 
Why can’t they see how good our real motives 
are? ” 

“ Because they have not had their eyes opened 
yet. Some day, something you say or do will con- 
vince them, and then, it will be all right forever 
after. But, anyway, it does not need to matter 
so much to you, for you are rewarded according 
to your deeds, and your own heart’s intention, 
and not according to any apparent result. The 
real result cannot be known in the half-light of 


White Knights 


207 


the present. It is only in looking back upon the 
perfected web of life, that we can see just where 
and how our little individual threads have helped 
in the weaving of it all. It is not what we seem 
to accomplish so much as w^hat we mean to ac- 
complish that counts in the development of our 
souls, — our real Selves. And as this is all the 
Children’s Hour we will be able to manage to- 
day, I will give you a poem alohg this line, while 
the subject is fresh in my mind: 

Send forth your thought for good, alway. 
Send forth kind word and deed; 

Send forth your love, from day to day. 

To meet the old world’s need; 

Say not that none appreciate 
The good you aim to do. 

For if sent out with purpose great, 

It must return to you! 

The blessings from the good you plan 
Are never sought in vain; 

Though it may all seem lost to man, 

To you it still is gain: 

For it is not what you have done. 

But what you meant to do. 

That should the goal seem lost or won. 

Still counts as good to you!” 


208 


White Knights 


The children had come a longer distance this 
day than they usually travelled from home, on 
these delightful outings, so long anticipated and 
so happily remembered. Oma, Ira, and Pete 
were feeling somewhat tired, and had several 
times sighed, and expressed the wish that they 
were not quite so far away from home. 

“ Well, you needn^t walk home, then,’^ said 
Aunt Susie, seeing you are feeling so tired, and 
dreading the long walk so. Will will just get you 
some horses to ride.^^ 

“ Horses? cried the crowd, in amazement. 
“ Where could he get any horses, here in the very 
heart of the woods! 

“ Eide? cried all three of the tired little ones, 
in an eager breath of expectancy. 

Of course! Will, just take your jack-knife 
and cut each of them a good-sized stick-horse, 
so they won’t have to walk home. It is so un- 
necessary for them to walk when they are so 
tired.” 

Will caught the thought, and immediately 
started to hunt for good strong sticks of the 
proper size to be converted into horses. His 
search was soon rewarded, and the three younger 
children gleefully mounted their wooden steeds, 
and merrily galloped homeward, without giving 
another thought to the aching feet and weary 


White Knights 


209 


little legs of which they had been having so much 
to say. 

The older children laughed joyously at the 
sight of the grotesque little figures, far in ad- 
vance of them, astride the convenient sticks 
prancing and dancing in the greatest glee. 

“ Does it really rest them. Auntie Sue?” asked 
Hattie. 

See for yourself,” was the smiling reply. 

Don’t they act as though it did?” 

It certainly must,” said Alice. But how 
can it? Why, they’re exercising twice as much’ 
as they did coming out!” 

^^Of course! Still it rests them, — simply 
through their thought. They are not walking 
now, — nor running, — nor jumping, — as you seem 
to think they are. They are riding. I gave the 
thought to their little Knights, and they very 
readily accepted it. And by the time they have 
gone all the way home, you will all see how; 
really rested they are. That is the power the 
mind has over the body, which I have tried so 
hard to make you thoroughly understand. It 
would not be so easy to make your minds accept 
this particular thought, for your reason would 
step in to prevent, as it does not with them, but 
none the less is your mind susceptible to other 
suggestions that, properly applied, would make 


210 


White Knights 


any pain or discomfort easy to bear, if not alto- 
gether disappear. Their little minds absorb 
thought, just as blotting paper absorbs ink.’^ 
Sure enough when they had reached home, the 
three children were loud and enthusiastic in pro- 
claiming how nicely they were rested, and what 
a fine ride they had had, all the long way home. 
The older children secretly resolved not to for- 
get the incident, but to make use of the device 
at any future time when the little folks com- 
plained of being ^^all tired out’’ when so far 
away from home! 


CHAPTER XX 


THE LEADING OF THE SPIRIT 
UNT Susie’s visit wore away, altogether 



too rapidly, for the pleasure of anybody 
concerned, dropping a seed-thought here, a 
good lesson there, — until the last Sunday night 
came, and she was to leave for the far-off city of 
her yearly work in the early morning. 

Her trunks had been all packed the night be- 
fore, and stood, all strapped and ready, in the 
hall, giving an air of desolation and desertion to 
the whole house, the children thought, as they 
slowly filed in through the passage for their last 
hour with the aunt who had really thrown open 
to them the gate-ways to a new world. 

O dear! O dear!” wailed Olive. “Every- 
thing is coming to an end. To-morrow, Auntie 
Sue will be far, far away, and next week, we mil 
have to go back to school, and I never can study! 
I can’t learn! I just can’t!” 

“ You are mis-speaking yourself, are you not, 
dear? You meant to say ^ I can! ’ and ‘ I will! ’ — 
I am sure you did,” corrected Aunt Susie. 

“ O you see, I was forgetting, already, Auntie 


211 


212 


The Leading of the Spirit 


Sue, and you not even gone yet! ” said Olive with 
a sigh. 

And forgetting the supreme law of the king- 
dom, too, — ^were you not? What is it, chil- 
dren? ” 

Keep Smiling! ” came in a chorus of some- 
what choked voices, though their faces involun- 
tarily brightened a little at the words. 

“Good! and just to keep you from forgetting 
again, I have sent for some little pins for you,” 
said Aunt Susie, taking a box from her pocket, 
and pinning on each little breast a small gold pin, 
bearing in white enamel, the magic words, 
“ Keep Smiling! ” As little Pete fingered his pin, 
his eyes glowing with pride, he looked down at 
Bruno, in his old place before the fire, and sud- 
denly stroked the shaggy head in sympathy. 

“ O no, Pifer dear, I have not forgotten your 
pal at all,” said Aunt Susie, tenderly as she un- 
wrapped a splendid collar upon which was en- 
graved in fine, large letters the same magic motto, 
and assisted the little fingers to fasten it around 
his old friend’s noble neck. “ There, now, Bruno’s 
finer than any of us, isn’t he?” she said. “ How 
did you think Auntie Sue could forget so promi- 
nent a figure in the group, my little man?” 

As she fastened the fifteenth pin upon her own 
.breast, and looked with wet eyes into their glori- 


The Leading of the Spirit 


213 


fied faces, she felt her heart throb with thanks- 
giving that she had been able to bring so much 
of the real gospel of living, — the real sunshine 
of life, — the real joy of being, — into each groping 
little soul. 

As for study, Olive,” she said as she at last 
sank back into her seat, “ what^s the matter with 
your Steward? Tell him at night what you want 
to have fixed upon your mind, — what you want 
to find, or to write, — what problem you want to 
solve, — and see what he will do for you. You 
can do just anything in the line of study if you 
learn to depend upon him.” 

O how fine! Why, I never once thought of 
that!” cried Olive, her face instantly brighten- 
ing. Of course I can, and I will, — now! ” 

“ I always tell him just what time I want to 
wake up in the morning, and he has never failed 
me once, in all my life,” said Aunt Susie. I 
have had to get up at the most unseasonable 
hours, too, to catch trains in the middle of the 
night, and all that, but I never had any other 
alarm clock, nor anybody else to call me. You 
can use him in everything you undertake, when 
you once learn to depend upon him, and show 
him that you trust him; and, of course, the more 
you do trust him, the more worthy of trust, — 
the more dependable, — he naturally becomes!” 


214 


The Leading of the Spirit 


“But, O Auntie Sue,” said Frank, sadly, “I 
just don’t dare wonder how we will get along 
when you are not here any more to tell us all 
these things, and to remind us when we forget! ” 

“ You must just trust the Spirit, dear, to lead 
you. Trust the Spirit, and obey its leading, and 
you cannot make any mistakes! ” 

“ But just what is the Spirit, and where? ” 
asked Hattie. 

“ The Spirit is that ^ still, small voice ’ within 
you, that teaches you right from wrong, — it is 
the voice of the Most High, — the voice of God. 
And where is it, you say? Eight within that 
Temple of Silence I told you about, in the very 
centre of the Castle of Faith, in the Kingdom of 
the Soul! Have you not had the texts, ^ Ye are 
the temple of the living God,’ and that other one, 
‘ The kingdom of God is wdthin you? ’ Some peo- 
ple call this Spirit, — this living bit of the Uni- 
versal God in us, — the Superconscious Mind, — 
but I will call it the King’s Chaplain, — the God 
of the Soul! And when you pray to Him as I 
told you, — and, my dears, you know every sincere 
desire of the soul is a real prayer, — if you will 
just remember to ‘ Be still and know,’ you will 
hear the ^ still, small voice,’ in reply, and it will 
tell you plainly what to do, and how to do it. 
If you say, ^ Let there be light! ’ it will surely be 


The Leading of the Spirit 


215 


again, just as it was in the beginning, ^ And there 
was light!’ This is what some people speak of 
as an ‘ impression,’ — but it is really the Spirit’s 
own voice ! ” 

“ But where did the voice of the Spirit first 
come from?” asked Alice. 

Down, down, through many earth-lives of the 
soul, dear, ever since the creation of worlds, it 
has grown and learned by experience the way in 
which a soul must travel till all its lives at school 
have been lived out, and it can go back at last to 
the higher realm of its eternal home. Listen to 
the voice, always, and obey, and the new selves 
that are builded within you will always be bright 
and shining monuments to eternal truth! Now 
for the last poem: 

Deep in the Temple of Silence, 

Reigneth the God of my Soul, — 

There will He hear my petitions, — 

There He my life will control! 

Then I must always keep smiling. 

Bid all my being rejoice. 

As I respond to the prompting. 

And am true to the ‘ still, small voice.’ ” 


CHAPTER XXI 


‘*GOOD-BYE!»^ 

HEY gathered on the platform of the little 
^ station at an early hour the next morning, 
to wave to Aunt Susie a good-bye that might 
possibly cover many years! 

The sisters wept as they kissed her, and 
thanked her for the work she had done for their 
children, as well as for the instructions she had 
finally so thoroughly instilled into their own 
minds that they felt they could now carry on, to 
a great measure, the work she had begun. The 
fathers, too, in deep, earnest tones, expressed 
the gratitude they shared for the good they could 
not only see and hear, but feel in their very souls. 
Surely, this strange sister-in-law of theirs had 
known what she was talking about, and had 
brought real miracles to pass!. 

But as she looked into the happy faces of the 
children, and saw behind them the newly-awak- 
ened souls, — as she contrasted their expression 
in the early morning light, with that which she 
had seen on the afternoon of her arrival, her eyes 
216 


217 


Good-bye! ’’ 


filled with tears that were certainly not tears of 
pain, for this was her sweetest reward, — the most 
welcome thanks, — that could possibly be ex- 
pressed. Why, even the wagging tail of the 
faithful Bruno was a silent tribute, — an eloquent 
testimony, — assuring her that her visit had cer- 
tainly not been at all in vain. 

“ I don’t know how we’ll manage without you,” 
said Mrs. Evans, but we’ll do our very best!” 

And we’ll write you fully, and appeal to you 
in every difficulty that we can’t see our own way 
out of,” added Mrs. Johnson. 

“ You must just trust the guidance of your own 
spirit, dear girls, and the power will come if you 
ask, ‘ in faith believing,’ I am impressed to re- 
peat this little poem of mine to you, which has 
helped me over many a hard place, ever since I 
first wrote it, several years ago. I call it 

'' ‘ TRUST.’ 

I don’t know where ’twill come from, 

I know not whence nor how, — 

I only know it must come. 

And come just here and now! 

I don’t know why I have this 
Omnipotence alway. 

But I do know I have it. 

And all things must obey. 


218 


Good-bye! 


I can’t locate the forces 

That bring man good or ill, 

But I command their service 
By might of my own will. 

I can’t see all the workings 
Of this strange God in me, 

But where it leads, I follow, — 

That’s all I need to see!” 

How her heart bounded with thanksgiving as 
the train pulled out of the little station, and she 
stood on the rear platform of the last car, wav- 
ing her handkerchief in response to the perfect 
snow-storm of signals from the far distance as 
long as her straining eyes could discern the 
flutter of a single fragment. 

God’s blessing upon them all!” she said 
fervently, as a curve of the road hid the little 
village entirely from her sight; while back on the 
platform at the station, a chorus of tearful voices 
was still chanting, bravely. 

Good-bye, Auntie Sue, good-bye!” 


THE END. 


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